Burning Hope
by faithy waithy
Summary: This is the last book in my three part sister fic series. I strongly recommend reading "Burning Flame" and "Burning Spirit" first. Join Amber as she continues to fight for her life, her family, and the world she loves. Will she escape the spirit world? Will she stop her father? Will she ever be free? We can only hope. Read/Review. Cannon pairings. OCxOC.
1. Find a way

**Dear Readers,**

**So here is the first chapter. If you are just finding my stories then I strongly recommend reading the first two stories "Burning Flame" and "Burning Spirit", otherwise this first chapter will be extremely confusing. Thanks to everyone who did read the previous stories and are still reading. Also thanks so much for your reviews, follows, and support. I hope you enjoy the final book of Amber's story and journey. **

**Thanks,**

**Faithy Waithy**

**AND ON WITH THE STORY!**

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**Kale POV**

Walking down the steel hall of the Fire Nation ship I was on, I crossed my arms as I felt a chill run through me. Being on this ship made me almost feel claustrophobic, and I wished more than anything to be off of it. The few candles lining the wall beside me barely did anything to ease my discomfort. Walking past another steel door, I listened to the only sound which happened to be my boots hitting the steel floor. Reaching my hand against the wall, I touched the fabric of a tapestry that hung beside me, and let my hand slide across the symbol of the Fire Nation. If I could fire bend, I would've burst the tapestry into flames right then and there.

I had no respect for the Fire Nation anymore…. It had taken everything from me. The Fire Nation killed my father, forced my brother into hiding, and now had hurt the one girl I loved. The thought made me tighten my fist in fury.

A steel door ahead of me opened, and I looked up to see Katara coming out of the room with exhausted blue eyes. She wore her water tribe shirt and trousers, and her water tribe choker was still around her neck. She carried in her hand a bowl of water, and I could tell she was weary and tired.

As I approached her, I asked trying to keep my voice leveled and hold back my pain, "How is she?"

Katara looked up at me with surprise, and I saw her frown when she saw it was me. "Kale, I thought I told you to go get some sleep. You won't be any help to us if you're not rested."

We both stopped in the hall, Katara now looking at me with worry in those kind blue eyes. Crossing my arms, I said with a leveled voice, "I did sleep. Ask Sokka. He'll confirm it."

"Five hours doesn't count. Stop being stubborn and go back to bed. You know as much as I do that Amber would want you to sleep, instead of worrying at her side like you've been doing these last four weeks," Katara said, and she was almost scolding me.

Rolling my eyes, I said, "You've been doing the same thing… Besides, I like giving her company. It's not like there's anything else to do on this ship."

"Fine Kale… I'm too tired to argue," Katara then began to walk by, but when she got beside me she stopped. Placing a comforting hand on my weak and weary shoulder she said, "I've done all I can for her, Kale. She's alive, and her wound is healing day by day. Her heart is steady and breathings finally normal. Obviously the spirits are keeping her alive, because someone else wouldn't have been able to survive this long. We have nothing to fear, Kale. She'll wake up soon. She's the strongest person I know."

Then Katara walked off, and I stood in the hall hanging my head in exhaustion. Shutting my eyes, I tried hard to push back my worries and pain. I really hoped Katara was right about her waking up. I missed her so much.

With a hard breath, I walked toward the steel door Katara had just opened and went inside. Stepping into the room, I found the two candles on the wall had been replaced while I was sleeping. The room was still as quiet as ever, and the only sound I heard was my breathing and Amber's.

In the room I had just entered, there was a large queen bed, a wooden chair, a table against the wall with a bowl of water and a rag, and there were fire nation insignia's carved on the walls. The room used to belong to the admiral that had been in charge of the ship. After we captured the ship and threw the admiral overboard, we decided this room would be the best place to put Amber.

Walking over to the large bed in the room, I headed over to the wooden chair seated beside it. As I got closer to the bed, I looked at Amber's state with agony. She was lying on the bed, her body covered by a large red blanket Sokka had managed to find in a storage box. Her black hair was hanging over her pale face, and I reached my hand to brush the hair back from her eye. She made no response to my hand brushing against her skin, and I wished she had. Her skin was so cold, even though blood flowed through her. It was almost like her body was here, but she wasn't.

Sighing, I pulled the wooden chair closer to the bed and sat down. Amber's eyes were closed like they had been for the last four weeks. Her breathing was still a little slower than normal, but at least she was breathing.

Amber had saved Aang's life four weeks ago. She somehow had known Azula was going to strike Aang with lightning, because just as the lightning struck Aang, Amber raced into the crossfire and took the brunt of the attack. Aang had been knocked unconscious, and he woke up only a week after the attack. He had a wound on his chest where the lightening had hit him, but it was small compared to Amber's. Amber had actually stopped breathing, and her wound had been deep. If Katara hadn't had that special water she received from the spirit oasis back at the North Pole, then Amber most likely would've died.

The thought made me sick.

After Katara and I had managed to drag Aang and Amber to the waterfall back at Ba Sing Se in the crystal catacombs we were in, Katara used her water bending to lift us out of the deep cavern below the earth into the sunlight. The others were already waiting for us when we somehow got back to the palace courtyard, and when we managed to pull Aang and Amber onto Appa's back we took off. We escaped Ba Sing Se with the Earth King, and later we dumped him in the wild where he decided to live his life with his pet bear Bosco. When he was gone, we then flew to Chameleon Bay where we found the Southern Water Tribe warriors and Chief Hakoda.

At Chameleon Bay we spent a week doing all we could to strategize about the war with Sokka and Katara's dad, while at the same time mend Amber's wound and try to make her comfortable. As we were there I spoke with Chief Hakoda for the first time ever. When he found out I was Amber's boyfriend, he was a bit taken off guard and wasn't sure how to feel about it. He warmed up to me though, seeing I was a good kid and really cared about his adoptive daughter.

Aang woke up only a week after we arrived at Chameleon Bay, and when he heard what happened to Amber he immediately blamed himself. We kept reassuring him that she would be fine and it wasn't his fault, but he was a stubborn kid.

At the end of our first week at Chameleon Bay, the water tribe warriors under Chief Hakoda had managed to capture a giant Fire Nation vessel, and we decided it would be a perfect cover for getting into the Fire Nation. As the water tribe warriors filled the giant ship with enough supplies to last us for months, we discussed what we should do with Amber. We eventually decided to move her as carefully as we could. She had been bleeding pretty badly from the lightning strike, and her whole chest was covered with bandages. Sokka and I managed to move Amber from the tent she was staying in onto the ship by taking turns carrying her. When we finally had her safely on the ship, we set off toward the Fire Nation.

It had been a very long last few weeks, and in them I had only left Amber's side for only five hours at a time. I was scared if I did leave her for longer, then she truly would disappear from my life.

Leaning back against my chair, I let out a hard and tired sigh. Pulling the purple stone Amber had given me when we were children out of my pants pocket I held the stone tightly in my hand. It wasn't warm or glowing, even when Amber was right here in front of me alive. That's what told me she wasn't really here. At least her spirit wasn't really here.

Amber's body was here, and it was healing, but I had a feeling deep down that her spirit was trapped. She'd always told me how she feared Huo would rip her spirit from her body one day and keep her in the spirit world. If Amber was in the spirit world, then I prayed to the spirits they would bring her back to me. They had no right keeping her from me. Even if she was a spirit, she was also a human.

Reaching my hand over to her face, I brushed my hand across her cheek and then leaned forward saying, "Come on Amber… Wake up. Please… I need you." Tears slid down my cheeks again. I'd been crying so much in these last few weeks. "I know what's happening… You're trapped in the spirit world. I can feel it. Please, Amber… Keep fighting. Find a way back to us. I lost you once in the past. Don't let me lose you again." She made no response, no movement, or not even a sign that she had heard. Her breathing remained the same as it was, and I pulled my hand away knowing it was pointless.

If her spirit wasn't in her body, then she definitely wouldn't hear me.

Sighing, I brushed my hand through her hair just wishing she'd come back to me. "Please come back soon. I miss you…"

An hour or two passed, and I was just beginning to drift to sleep. My head was pillowed by my arms as I leaned forward and rested on the bed. A knock on the door sounded, and immediately I jumped and sat up straight looking over at the room's entrance.

Sokka opened the door and entered, and in his hand was a plate of steamed fish. He wore his water tribe shirt underneath fire nation training armor, and some dark trousers. He had his brown hair still tied back in a ponytail like always. His face was guarded trying to keep his strong warrior look, but I knew he was terribly worried about his sister.

Walking over to me, he said, "Katara told me to bring you some dinner."

Nodding, I rubbed my face trying to brush the exhaustion away. Sokka placed the fish on the table in the room, and then he walked over to Amber. His eyes softened as he stared down at his unconscious little sister. "Has anything changed?" he asked.

Shaking my head, I answered, "Same as yesterday… Her breathing's still slow, and she still isn't responsive."

Sokka sighed, then reached his hand out and stroked his little sister's hair, probably wishing she would respond. "Come on Amber… Wake up," he begged, and I could tell he cared for his adoptive sister more than anything. "We need you." She didn't respond, and Sokka pulled his hand away with defeat knowing it would do no good. For a second I could've sworn I saw a tear try to come out of Sokka's eye.

The room fell silent as we both went into our own train of thoughts. Sokka was probably blaming himself as much as I was. He was her older brother, and he probably felt like he had failed in protecting her. It was the same feelings I had. I'd promised to protect her, and I let her slip right through my fingers. If I had known what Amber was about to do, I would've surely tried to stop her.

Sokka must've noticed I was blaming myself as much as him. "Hey Kale… You know there was nothing you could've done, right?" Sokka asked, looking over at me with guarded eyes.

Nodding, I said weakly, "I just wish I could've done something. I wish I had known what she was going to do. I might've been able to stop her."

Sokka let out a hard breath. "She's so stubborn. She always puts others before herself first." He then closed his eyes hard, and I could tell he was trying not to break down. "I can't believe this happened… I swore to mom I'd look out and protect Amber. I should've been there. Maybe I could've-"

"Just as you told me Sokka, you couldn't have done anything," I interrupted, my voice sounding pained. "When Amber's set on doing something, nothing stops her. She must've known Azula was going to fire at Aang and she jumped in the way to save him."

Sokka tightened his fists to hold in his pain some more. "I wish she'd just wake up… The wait is the worst part."

Frowning, I said, "She's trapped… But I know she won't give up until she's free."

"What do you mean trapped?" Sokka asked, now looking at me with question.

Immediately I wanted to kick myself. Sokka would never believe me if I told him what I knew. "Nothing… Never mind..."

Sokka shot me a suspicious look, but he said nothing else as he looked back at his sister. Sighing, I looked back at Amber and said in my head, "_Don't give up Amber… Please come back to us."_

**Amber POV**

Rushing through the golden hall of the massive building I was in, I searched wildly for a way out. My bare feet hit the perfectly smooth marble floor beneath me, but I could not feel the stone on my feet. My spirit glowed as I rushed down the hall that never seemed to end, and though I knew I was breathing hard from my run, my heart did not pulse because I did not have one. My human body was somewhere else, and at the moment all I happened to be was spirit.

"Amber! Running won't help you!" Huo shouted, and I swiftly glanced back to see he was standing at the beginning of the hallway and looked amused by my attempt to escape. His gold eyes watched my movements and his fire red hair fell over his eyes a bit as he watched me. The man, who appeared in his early twenties but could have been older than the human world itself, began to walk down the hall toward me. He wore a pair of black trousers, a fire red t-shirt, and he was barefoot. Now that I thought about it I wore a long shoulder strap fire red dress that trailed to my ankles. Guess when a person goes to the spirit world, they get a makeover.

Looking away from Huo now, I returned to racing through the never ending building. There had to be a way out. Where was Roku when I needed him?

It felt like I'd been running through this building for ages. A while ago I'd appeared in Huo's massive throne room. He told me that I was pretty much dead in the human world and there was no point going back. I told him he should just shut his pie hole and tell me how to get back. He responded to my snide comment by saying, "There is no way back." After he said that, I knew he was lying, and so I turned and ran.

Rushing around the corner that I finally managed to reach, I turned the corner sharply only to run smack dab into Huo. He grabbed my shoulders as I stumbled back with his hands, and I gasped when I looked up into his gold eyes. "You honestly think you can out run me? I'm the spirit of fire," he said, as if it were obvious.

Yanking from Huo, I cried, "What do you want from me?! Just let me go!" My breathing was hard, even though I had a feeling if I stopped breathing nothing bad would happen.

"Go where? I already told you that your body is barely worth going back to," he said, and I could see he didn't understand why I was fighting him so much.

"I'm not staying here! You can't make me," I shouted, getting pretty annoyed with this spirit dude.

He now frowned when he saw the anger flash across my face. "Let's go back to the main room and talk. Standing in the hall isn't the most comfortable setting."

"No! I'm not going anywhere with you! Let me go back, Huo!" I ordered.

He grabbed my shoulders now and I winced from his touch. Then he leaned forward saying, "Why? What do you have to go back to? A life of pain, sadness, anger, regret, and hate is all you'll find in the human world. Here you can be happy. I can give you anything you want."

Now I tried to pull from his hold, but he tightened his grip. "Okay. If you can give me whatever I want, then I want to go back to the human world," I spat.

He leaned even closer, and I could almost see fire in his eyes. "That's not what I meant."

"Why are you doing this to me? What about the mission you and Roku had me on? Does that not matter anymore?" I asked, still trying to pull from his hold. He was stronger than I thought he would be.

He now frowned, and he released me. When I was free I immediately stepped back as far as I could. To my shock a wall appeared behind me and my back hit. Where did the wall come from? What happened to the hall? That's when it hit me. The halls were changing. That's why it had felt like I'd been running for so long before. Huo was somehow changing the halls and trapping me.

"How did you do that?!" I asked, looking at the spirit with terror.

He almost laughed when he saw my terror. "I made this place, Amber. If I made it, then why shouldn't I be able to make it do as I wish?" My eyes widened now, and Huo sighed. He stepped forward, and I squished myself against the stone wall even more. "You're in the spirit world, Amber. This place is not like the human world you know. If you stay here though, I can show you all the beautiful and magical things about it."

"I've seen enough," I snapped. Then I said, "You didn't answer my earlier question! What about the mission?"

Huo now smirked. "I think the young Avatar can take care of it now. You've helped enough. In the beginning Roku and I had planned for you and Aang to stop your father, but now I've decided the avatar can handle it."

"He almost died!" I cried. "That's not handling it well!"

When I said this, I could see it annoyed Huo. "So I have to send you back, because the Avatar's too weak?"

Narrowing my eyes, I snapped, "That's not what I said!" Then I crossed my arms. "What I meant to say, is that it's my destiny to help Aang defeat my father. You and Roku said so yourselves, so I don't get why you're going back on your plans now. Are you desperate and lonely, or something? If you are then I'm sure there are tons of other girls in the human world that will faun over you! I'm not one of them!"

He was taken aback by what I said, and I could tell he wasn't really sure how to respond.

Stepping forward now, I lit a flame in my hand and snapped, "I'm going back! You can't keep me here! I'll never be happy here!"

Huo scowled now, and he turned walking away. "You're not leaving," he hissed, walking down the hall in front of him. A large golden door was at the end, which opened by its self as he stepped inside. Scowling, I cut my flame off, and I followed him down the hall not really having anywhere else to go. There was a dead end behind me.

Walking through the door Huo had gone through, I found I was back in his large throne like room and he was back on his flaming seat. He had a flame in the air which he was twirling with his finger. He looked kind of sad, and I almost felt bad for him. Then I remembered he wasn't letting me go back, and all the sympathy vanished.

Walking up to him, I noticed he didn't even look my way as I walked across the marble floor that I now noticed had fire symbols sketched in the stone. Looking back up, I saw his gold eyes were watching me once again.

"Look Huo," I said, stepping right up to the throne and crossing my arms. "I appreciate everything you've done for me in the past. If it wasn't for you I would've died at childbirth. I know I owe you thanks for that... However, you have to realize that I have a family waiting for me down there. I have a boyfriend who I plan on marrying one day in the future. I want to live a human life, and I want to be happy living it. What is it going to take for you to send me back?"

Huo stopped his flame and said with an even voice, "There's only one thing I want."

"Okay… What?" I asked.

He smiled, and I was almost afraid at what he would say next. "Your eternal servitude."

Now I scowled. "What! Why the heck would I agree to that? That's not letting me live a normal human life!"

Huo stood now, saying, "Oh, Amber… Silly Amber… I am offering you a normal human life." He stepped up to me and I saw amusement in his eyes. "You'd of course get to live in the human world again. I'll let you live like any other human, grow old, die happy. Of course I'd let you keep your abilities, seeing as if I took them away you'd die on the spot. The only reason you are alive is because of the strength I gave your human body. When your time does truly come to an end in the human world though, then your spirit will immediately come back here where you will be for the rest of eternity."

My eyes widened as I took in everything Huo had said. I'd get to live a human life, but I'd still be connected to him. Then when I died years from now, I'd have no choice but to work for Huo in the spirit world. Was an afterlife of servitude truly worth a human life?

"I know what you're thinking… A human life is so small compared to eternity, but that's all I'm willing to offer. You'll get to be with your family, with that Fire Nation boy, and you'll even get to keep your powers. You'll get to live a long life in the human world like you want. It's a sweet bargain in my eyes," Huo said.

Now I held my head, wondering what I should do. Then a thought hit me. If I accepted Huo's deal, then maybe I'd find a way in the future to break my connection to Huo for good. Maybe if I could buy myself more time, I'd have a chance of finding a way to be free. It was a risk, but I was willing to take it.

If it meant getting to see Kale and the others again, I'd do anything.

"Fine," I said. Crossing my arms, I said with a leveled tone. "I'll accept your offer. You just have to promise that you won't ever yank my spirit from my body again until I am truly dead in the human world. I don't want to come back to the spirit world until I really have to."

Huo was amused by my request, but I could see he accepted my wish. "Very well… I promise on a spirits honor I won't bring your spirit here until the time is right."

Now I felt relief. At least I wouldn't have to worry about that anymore. "So we have a deal?" I asked.

He nodded. "We have a deal."

He held his hand out, as if to shake on it. Taking his hand, I once again gasped as I felt a surge of power shoot through me. This connection between Huo and I still made me uneasy, but I knew I'd try to find a way to break it. After I defeated my father, I'd search for answers no matter how long it would take.

"But…" he said, and I suddenly looked at him with terror. I hated 'buts' so much. "You have to find your own way to your body."

"What!" I cried, yanking from his hand. "We have a deal!"

Huo smirked. "I promised I'd let you go back to the human world. I never said I'd put you back myself."

Scowling, I snapped, "Fine! I'll find my way back! I don't need your help!" Turning on my heel, I began to walk toward the entrance to the giant throne room. The flames died as I approached, and I assumed that was Huo's way of saying I could leave.

"Good luck… Watch out for my neighbors while you're leaving. They'll eat anything," Huo said, trying to scare me. Turning my head, I glared daggers at him. He smirked at my annoyance, then said, "See you soon beautiful."

Turning again, I walked out of his throne room through the large door that had once been engulfed in flames. Huo wouldn't see me again. I'd find a way to never have to see that spirit ever again.

Stepping through the throne room's massive entrance, I was surprised to find I had stepped outside into a strange world and not into a hall. There was almost a barren desert like setting in front of me, but in the distance I saw the edge of a forest. Around me there were large rocky caves where I heard strange noises inside. There was no wind, and the lighting around me was almost white. Looking up, I saw in the sky strange animal like creatures flying above. Actually, some of them didn't look like animals but strange glowing orbs. There wasn't a cloud or sun in the white sky, and that made me a bit uneasy.

Looking back, I was expecting to see a giant palace behind me. To my terror I saw nothing. There was nothing but flat desert. Huo had somehow made his palace disappear. Now, I was officially alone in the spirit world, and I had a bad feeling it wouldn't be easy getting to my body.

Starting to walk across the desert floor, I kept my eyes alert as I searched for anything that might pop out and try to eat me. From what I knew about the spirit world, the spirits in it were not always nice. Aang had met one spirit named Koh, who liked to steal faces. Another time there was a spirit named Hei Bai who got angry and the Fire Nation and destroyed a village in the human world. I had to stay alert and on my toes.

Something suddenly flew past me, and I gasped jumping back as I searched for the thing that had blurred past. It could've been a mad hungry spirit. To my surprise though, I saw something very small on the ground in front of me. Slowly, I walked over to the creature that couldn't have been any bigger than my two fists put together. To my utter amazement, on the ground in front of me, I saw a small turtle duck.

My eyes widened as I stared at the familiar animal, and I saw it's beady black eyes were looking right at me. There was something different about this turtle duck compared to one in the human world. It almost seemed to have strange symbols on its shell, and a glow illuminated around its body.

It looked up at me, and I stared down at it with curiosity. "Um… Hi there little fella. You wouldn't happen to know how I can get back to my body?"

The little turtle duck quacked at me, and then it began to waddle forward. At first I wasn't sure what to do, and so I stood where I was not sure if I should follow. The turtle duck looked back a moment later though, and I saw it stare at me once more.

"Are you going to take me?" I asked.

It quacked again, and then began to walk forward once more. I couldn't believe I was about to follow a turtle duck across the desert, but deciding it was the only thing I had to go on at the moment, I decided there was nothing to lose.

Following the turtle duck for what felt like miles, I kept alert the whole time making sure no spirits popped up and got me. There were a few scary looking spirits every now and then, one even looking like a half man half rhino, but none of them made any move toward me. After what felt like forever of walking through the desert, I was surprised when we finally reached the edge of the deep green forest I'd originally seen. It was farther than it had appeared when I first got into the desert. The turtle duck stopped at the forest edge, and then looked up at me quacking again. Looking at him in confusion, I asked, "This way?"

The turtle duck nodded it's head and then flew off back the way it came. Watching the little guy go, I was amazed as it disappeared into the bright white sky. "Um… thanks," I weakly said, not really glad to be alone again. Sighing, I turned and was about to step into the forest, but to my shock someone stood in front of me.

Screaming, I jumped back and felt my foot trip over a rock. Falling to the ground, I winced from the fall actually feeling my butt ache from the fall. A laugh sounded, and I looked up in surprise to see someone I thought I'd never see again.

Someone I hadn't seen since I was six years old.

"Lu Ten…?"

My older cousin smiled down at me, his gold eyes amused at my shock. His black hair was up in a topknot still, and I saw he was wearing a fine red shirt and some nice black pants. His feet were in some black boots. His spirit looked like he had looked in the human world nine years ago. He was twenty something, tall and lean, and he smiled down at me with relief. He looked strong, and I assumed that was because he had fought many battles when he was alive.

"Hey… I'm glad Pip found you before the other spirits did. That little guy always comes through when I need him," my cousin said, then held his hand out to me. My eyes stared at my cousin's hand with amazement. My cousin who had died in battle, was right in front of me.

"Lu Ten?" I asked again.

He chuckled. "What's wrong cuz… You look like you're seeing a ghost?"

Narrowing my eyes, I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up to my feet. Then I asked pulling my hand away, "Is it really you, or is this some kind of trick?"

He now smiled. "I should be asking you the same thing. Last time I saw you, you were six and a little shrimp. Now you're only a few inches shorter than me. Time flies when you're dead I guess."

His words made me wince. How long was I dead now? Was there even a body left to go to? "How did you know I was here?" I asked, my mind shooting wildly with questions.

He calmly said, "Roku sent me. He's a little busy right now, so he sent me in his place. We actually had trouble locating your spirit, because Huo was somewhat hiding you. As soon as you stepped out of Huo's palace Pip sensed you. I sent my friend to go lead you to me."

"Pip?" I asked. "You mean the little turtle duck?"

He nodded. "He's been my pal for a while now. There are some spirits here you can't trust and should stay away from, but others turn out to be great company." He then turned saying, "Come on… We better get a move on if we're going to return you to your body." He started to walk into the forest, and I followed him though I wasn't sure if I should. Crossing my arms, I stepped at my cousin's heel as he headed deeper and deeper into the forest.

"So, my body is okay?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes. Your sister Katara managed to heal you enough so your body wouldn't die. Roku's been keeping your body in a sort of frozen state so you don't starve or dehydrate. I'm not going to lie to you Amber… When you return to your body it will be painful. Your wound was deep, and it still hasn't healed completely."

Sighing, I hung my head at the thought of being in such a state. My family, Aang, Toph, and Kale were probably worried sick. "Thanks for the heads up," I whispered softly.

Looking back up, I tried to distract my mind and took in the scene around me. The trees around us stretched almost fifty feet in the air, and there were strange creatures scuttling across the forest floor. Strange plants stuck up around us, and I actually saw some really pretty flowers that seemed to actually light up the forest floor like candles. There were also large plants that looked like they could eat me, and so I stayed as far from them as I could.

"So what is Roku doing that has him so busy?" I now asked, trying to make small talk.

Lu Ten glanced back at me, then said as he continued to walk down the forest path, "It's the avatar… since Aang was hit by Azula's lightening Roku hasn't been able to connect to him. Aang was in the avatar state when he was struck, and because of that Roku's having difficulty finding a way to reconnect to him."

"So… Aang can't go into the avatar state?" I asked, not liking where this was going.

My cousin shook his head. "I guess not."

Well that couldn't be good.

Suddenly we arrived at a sort of pond, and I gasped when I saw where I was. It was the same body of water I'd appeared at a long time ago, when Huo had first brought me to the spirit world. Looking around, I saw the jungle of roots and felt the warm ground on my bare feet. Why was I back here? Was this the portal to the human world or something?

"I know this place," I said. "I was here before. Huo brought me to this place one day when I was asleep."

My cousin had turned now and looked at me with almost sympathy. "You've truly been through a lot in your life. You were taken away from us and thought to be dead. You were beaten by Zhao and almost killed. You had to watch your own water tribe mom die right in front of your eyes. And now you're going through all of this with the war and Huo. I wish there was something I could do to help more."

Immediately I ignored the part about my mom not wanting to bring back painful memories. Smiling weakly, I said, "You have helped, Lu Ten. You're helping me get back to my body. That's more than I could ever ask of you."

He nodded, and suddenly I was pulled into his arms. He hugged me close to him, and with a sigh I hugged him back. It felt nice seeing my cousin again. "Do me a favor… When you see my dad, tell him I love him and am proud of what he's doing."

Nodding, I said softly, "I definitely will."

He then pulled away. "To get back to your body, all you have to do is step into the water and concentrate. You'll need to focus on nothing but your body in the human world."

Now I began to panic, afraid I'd not be able to do it. "What if I can't?" I asked, not wanting to be trapped here forever.

Lu Ten touched my shoulder reassuringly. "You can. You're one of the strongest girls I know, Amber. You just have to believe in yourself."

Nodding, I watched as he took his hand from my shoulder and backed up. As he backed away, I asked, "Hey, Lu Ten… I'm just curious. Do you miss the human world?"

He looked at me for a moment, and I could see his gold eyes soften as he thought over the words to say. With a weak smile, he said, "I don't necessarily miss the world, but I do miss the people. You know… I'm glad you were actually alive in the end. When I got here, I never expected to hear my cousin was alive and with the Southern Water Tribe. I've heard stories all about your travels with your family and friends."

Now I smiled. "So spirits gossip too?"

Lu Ten chuckled. "Well we have to keep up to date with the human world. It's not like there's a lot of excitement here."

Nodding, I turned and looked at the water knowing I had to go now. Looking back at Lu Ten, I said sincerely, "It was really good seeing you."

He nodded. "You too, Amber." As I turned and began to walk toward the water, I heard Lu Ten say, "End this war once and for all."

Looking back at him, I promised, "I will."

Then stepping into the water, I prepared to head back to the human world. The warm liquid that just went up to my ankles, almost seemed to glow around me as I stood in the small pond. Glancing back at the spot I had left Lu Ten, I saw he was no longer there. "Bye, Lu Ten," I whispered. Then looking back at the pond, I stared down at my reflection hoping this would really work.

Closing my eyes, I thought of nothing but my body in the human world. As I closed my eyes, I felt the liquid that was only at my ankles begin to creep up the rest of my spirit. Trying to remain calm, I continued to concentrate on nothing but my human body.

No matter what I was getting back. Nothing was going to stop me.

Pain suddenly shot through me, and I gasped as I felt my whole body convulse. It felt like lightning was once again coursing through my body. Screaming, I tried to open my eyes but I couldn't. All I could see was darkness, but I felt the pain. It was like a knife was stabbing into my chest. My screams stopped suddenly, and I felt my throat tighten as I tried to breath. Was my spirit returning to my body now?

A loud pounding suddenly rang in my ears, and I felt something in my chest pounding weakly. My chest was burning, and I felt tears slide down my cheeks as I felt the pain. Trying to breathe, I finally managed to control my mouth and nose, and air filled inside my body. As I tried to take control of my body once more, I began to notice how heavy my muscles felt. How long had I been out? I felt like I hadn't moved my muscles in weeks.

With as much strength as I could, I opened my eyes and tried to get a bearing of my surroundings. As my eyes began to focus, and my brain started working again, I started to focus on what was around me. Looking around the dimly lit room I was in, I saw two candles dancing on the wall. Beside me I noticed a wooden chair, but it was empty. A blanket was draped over my weak body, and I felt my head cushioned by a pillow. The room I was in almost seemed to sway and I wondered if maybe I was on a ship.

Looking over at the walls, I wondered if maybe I was on an earth kingdom ship or something. Looking at the wall though, I knew that was not the case. Hanging from the wall, and stretching almost five feet tall, I saw with utter horror a bright red tapestry. On the tapestry was a black sketch of a Fire Nation symbol. The flame outline sent dread through me.

I was on a Fire Nation ship!

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**A/N: So that's the first chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed Amber's trip through the spirit world. The next chapter will start to follow the TV series again. Hope you liked it!**


	2. Awake

**A/N: So this chapter came fast, but I don't know how long the next one will take. Homework's starting to pile up at college now so I may only be able to write during the weekends now. I'll get started on the next chapter as fast as I can though. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and thanks for the reviews. It was great to hear your thoughts on the first chapter. Enjoy!**

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Staring at the symbol of the flame hanging on the wall, I felt my blood run cold as I tried to collect myself. I was on a Fire Nation ship, and the ship definitely was moving. What was going on? Where was my water tribe family? Where were my friends? I thought Katara had healed me, so why was I on this ship?

Then a thought struck me. What if after Katara healed me, I somehow got captured by the Fire Nation?

My eyes widened as it all came to me. Katara must've healed me in the crystal caverns back at Ba Sing Sei, but as she was healing me she was forced to flee because there were too many Dai Li agents. Zuko and Azula probably had my body carried on this giant war ship, and I was probably headed straight to my father.

There was no way I was going to my father. I had to get off this ship!

With all the strength I could muster, I sat up and the blanket on top of me fell away. As soon as I sat up, I had to bite my tongue to keep from screaming. The pain in my chest was so intense, that I actually almost blacked out again. Holding myself together though, I took in a few deep breaths trying to push the pain back. Clutching my chest, right where my heart happened to be, I was surprised to find I wasn't wearing a shirt and the only thing covering my chest was bandages. Luckily I was covered so nothing was showing, but still, I wouldn't have minded having a shirt.

As slowly as I could without causing too much pain to my chest, I turned on the bed so I could hang my feet over the side. I was still wearing Water Tribe trousers, and I noticed with utter relief that my Water Tribe bracelet and Fire Nation bracelet were still on my wrist. At least my captors were nice enough to leave them on.

With shaky limbs, I let my bare feet hit the steel floor of the ship, and then I got ready to use my muscles for the first time. Still clutching my chest, which actually felt like a knife was stuck inside it, I used my other hand to push myself off the bed. At first I had to use the bed's edge for support, and I gasped as my muscles burned from lack of use. My head went fuzzy as I stood for the first time in who knows how long.

Giving myself a few minutes to get control of my body, I finally tried to take my first step. Still having my hand over the wound on my chest, I took a step forward and reached out for the chair near me. Stumbling only a bit, I was able to grab the chair to stop myself from falling. My head almost swam as my vision blurred a bit, but I gritted my teeth to keep from blacking out.

Taking another moment to get my vision back, I tried to breathe normally and noticed it was finally becoming easier. My muscles were feeling a bit stronger and my limbs no longer felt like liquid. Deciding to chance it, I let go of the chair and slowly made my way to the steel door of the room I was in. My chest pulsed in pain after each breath I took, but I refused to give up. I had to get off this ship and back to my family.

The ship swayed a bit as I approached the steel door, and I stumbled a bit forward but managed to catch myself. My chest felt like it was being stabbed again, but I ignored the pain as much as I could. Sweat beaded down my forehead from the pain, and I could tell my breathing was hard as I used all the energy I could to escape.

Finally I reached the door, and with a shaky hand I reached for the metal latch. Pulling it up, the door swung open and I took that as my cue to leave. Entering the dimly lit silent hall, I used the wall for support as I stumbled down the hall toward the direction I hoped was the way out. Tears began to fall from my eyes due to the intense pain I felt centered around my chest, and I wished the pain would just stop.

Lu Ten had been right… This wasn't very pleasant. It would've been nice if Lu Ten had given me a heads up about being captured too.

Turning the corner of the long hall, I saw to my utter relief a steel staircase that seemed to head up on deck. Someone stepped on the staircase though just as I approached, and to my horror it was someone in Fire Nation armor. His face was covered by a helmet, and I had no doubt he was Fire Nation. Immediately I backed away, my heart pounding hard and only making the pain worse.

The soldier who came down, looked utterly surprised to see me. "You're awake!" he cried, his voice older and somewhat familiar as he rushed down the remaining stairs toward me. He actually almost sounded like Bato, but the thought quickly went out my head when I remembered he was Fire Nation.

Immediately I panicked, not ready to be captured by this man. With a thrust of my hand, I shot a very weak ball of purple fire toward the soldier. It didn't even hit him as he stepped off his last step, but it did slow him down. Taking his falter, I took off as fast as I could down the hall. "Hey! Wait!" he called.

Gasping, I saw my eyes blur as tears took over my vision. Clutching my chest hard, I gasped for air as I felt my chest burn. The only thing that had me running down the hall right now was adrenaline. When that wore off, I knew I was in trouble.

"Amber! Wait!" the voice called, but I kept running.

The soldier knew my name… but of course he knew my name. I was the wanted princess of the Fire Nation.

Turning a sharp corner, I searched wildly for a place to hide. Immediately I saw a door open about five feet away, and I rushed inside not even hesitating for a moment. Rushing through the door, I turned and grabbed it swinging it shut not even bothering to see what room I had entered. Then I pressed the latch down to lock myself in and to lock the soldier out. Sobs escaped me as my whole body shook with terror. Falling to my knees, I clutched my chest as it pulsed with an agonizing pain. My breathing was very ragged as I tried to catch my breath.

As I continued to sob, I closed my eyes tightly wishing this wasn't happening. There was a pounding on the door, and I heard a shout from the other side but I couldn't hear what was being said. All I wanted was my family and friends right now. Sokka… Katara… Kale… Aang… Toph… I wanted to be with them all so terribly.

I was back in my human body, but I wasn't where I wanted to be. "No!" I cried out. "I'm back! I'm supposed to be back! Why? Why?!" More sobs escaped me as the pain in my chest increased.

A voice came behind the door then, and I vaguely heard someone snap, "See! I said leaving her side was a bad idea!"

"How were we supposed to know she was going to wake up the one time none of us happened to be with her?" Another voice snapped.

Somehow, as if by magic, the doors latch swung up, and I screamed falling back on my butt and kicking back from the door, trying to pull myself as far away as I could. The door swung open then, and I shut my eyes bracing myself for the soldiers to swarm in and grab me. Footsteps approached me, and I tried to back up more wanting nothing more than to be with the others. I wasn't ready to be the Fire Nation's prisoner.

I probably looked pathetic, scooting back on my butt with one hand while using my other to clutch my pounding chest. My face was probably soaked with tears, and I was sure I looked like an emotional wreck.

"Amber…" Someone suddenly said softly, and I suddenly skipped a breath as I heard him. Immediately my eyes shot open wide when I recognized the voice. What? It couldn't be? Looking up, I saw with utter bewilderment my older brother Sokka. He was wearing some fire nation training armor, which was just the chest plate. Underneath I saw he was still wearing his water tribe clothing. His eyes stared down at me with both a mixture of relief and worry. "Amber… It's okay. You're safe. You're not in danger."

Staring at my brother with amazement, I felt my pulsing heart calm as I stared into his deep blue eyes. My chest still felt like knives were stabbing through it, but I ignored the pain as relief filled inside me.

"Sokka…" I whispered, and it felt so good to say his name.

He looked utterly relieved to see me. "Glad you're finally awake."

With a cry of relief, I somehow found the strength to get to my feet and stumble forward into Sokka's arms. He quickly rushed forward himself to catch me as I stumbled, and as soon as his warm arms circled around me I broke into more sobs. Sokka lowered us both to the floor, and as we were on our knees I fell into Sokka's hold letting out my cries of relief. He placed a hand on the back of my head holding me to him as he too was relieved to see me. "Shh… You're safe now Amber. It's okay. I'm not going to let anything else happen to you," Sokka promised.

In between my sobs, I managed to choke out, "I- I thought that- that I was captured… I-I thought they got me."

Sokka sighed. "No… You're okay. You're safe. There's nothing to be afraid of... We were stupid to leave you alone like that."

Finally I felt myself calm down, and I finally began to relax in Sokka's embrace. He lowered his hand from my head and placed it on my back so he could hug me closer to him. "I'm so glad you're back," he whispered, his voice breaking a bit as he pressed his face into my hair.

Sniffling, I felt my breathing was back to normal and my shaking was starting to cease. I was safe. I wasn't captured by the Fire Nation.

"Told you she'd be back," Toph's voice suddenly said. "Princess is a fighter."

Pulling away from Sokka, I looked over at the door to see Toph was there, and behind her was Katara, Aang, and Kale. They all looked utterly relieved to see I was alive, awake, and okay. Katara actually had tears in her eyes as she looked at me with joy.

My whole body became so tired suddenly, and I knew it was because my adrenaline had finally worn off. "I'm so glad…" I whispered. "I made it back." Closing my eyes, I felt exhaustion suddenly take me over.

As I started to drift, I heard Sokka say, "Let's get her back to the room." Then I was lifted from the floor as unconsciousness took me over.

When I came to sometime later, my chest was still in pain but I could breathe a lot better. Opening my eyes weakly, I looked around to see I was back in the room I had first woken in. Instead of an empty chair though, I saw to my relief Kale was seated beside me. His amazing brown eyes met mine, and I saw him smile glad to see I was awake. His hand was clutched around my own and I was almost relieved by the familiar warmth. "Hey…" he said. "Feeling a little better?"

Staring into his familiar eyes, I said softly, "Yeah."

He took his hand from my own, and then he reached forward and stroked my hair causing me to feel comfort. "Good… That's all that matters." He pulled his hand away again, and I saw he looked like he wanted to say something else to me. He must've decided it would only upset me though, because he didn't say anything.

"What happened?" I asked now, my voice soft. I decided if he wasn't going to talk then I would.

"You don't remember?" Katara suddenly asked, and I jumped a bit surprised to see Kale and I weren't the only ones in the room. The whole group was gathered around the bed, and I saw Aang looked upright and healthy. Toph was leaning against the wall, but I could tell she was glad I was okay. Katara and Sokka stood beside Aang, at the very foot of the bed.

Shaking my head to answer Katara's question, I said softly, "The last thing I remember was dying in Kale's arms."

Now Katara smiled weakly. "Oh… Well you wouldn't remember much after that then. After you were shot by Azula, Kale and I managed to pull you and Aang to safety. Your uncle held off the Dai Li and your evil siblings long enough to give us a chance. When we got out of the crystal catacombs we found the others and got you and Aang on Appa. Aang wasn't hurt as bad as you, so I was able to heal him with regular water. If I didn't have the water from the spirit oasis to use on you, you would've definitely died."

As I took in everything Katara had just said, I tried not to think about Zuko's betrayal, Azula's attack, or the fact that Ba Sing Sei had fallen. Instead I asked, "So, I never died?"

Katara smiled. "No… You've just been in a coma for a while."

"Uncle… Did he make it out?"

Katara shook her head to answer, and I closed my eyes as I felt agony toward my uncle. He was probably locked in a prison by now. He was probably as upset over Zuko's betrayal as me.

Opening my eyes again, I asked to no one in particular, "How long have I been in a coma?"

"It's been a while," Kale answered. "You've been in a coma for four weeks."

My eyes widened and my heartbeat began to accelerate as I took this in. Four weeks! I'd been in the spirit world for four weeks! It had only felt like a day!

"That can't be! I was only in the spirit world for a day or two!" I cried in horror, sitting up and clutching my head with disbelief. My chest burst with pain at my sudden movement, and I gasped clutching my chest again.

"Hey… Don't move so fast," Katara said, taking a step forward as if to help me. Taking in a few deep breaths, I managed to dull the pain some and smiled at her weakly letting her know I was okay. When the pain finally calmed, I dropped my hand again. As soon as I did I felt Kale wrap his hand around my own, and I could tell my words had pained him.

Looking at him with question, I heard him say, "So it's true then… You were trapped in the spirit world." He looked sad by this news. "

"What! You knew this Kale?" Sokka exclaimed, stepping over to Kale furious he hadn't told him.

Kale let go of my hand now and stood from the chair holding his hands up in surrender. "It was a guess, Sokka. I didn't know it was true until now."

Sokka now cried, "So that's what you meant the other day when you said she was trapped! Why didn't you tell me?"

Kale answered calmly, "Because I wasn't sure if it was right. I didn't want to tell you something that could've been wrong."

Aang now stepped forward, and I looked over at him as he said, "You were trapped in the spirit world then… That's why you couldn't return to your body?"

Nodding, I said softly, "Yeah… Huo wouldn't let me leave."

"So how'd you get out?" Aang asked.

Lying back down against the pillow, I closed my eyes as I remembered the deal I'd made. "We made a deal."

"Which was?" Aang asked.

Sighing, I opened my eyes trying to hold in the tears as I lied. "Huo said I could return to my body, as long as I promised to defeat my father once and for all. He said after my dad was defeated he wouldn't bother me anymore."

There was silence in the room as they took in my lie. Toph now said, "Why do I actually not believe you?"

Looking over at her now, I saw she was frowning as if she could sense my lie. "That's the truth," I said, but I knew my voice wasn't very convincing. She seemed like she didn't believe me still.

"So after you made the deal," Aang spoke, trying to get back to the topic at hand, "Huo just let you go?"

Nodding, I said, "Yeah… I mean he didn't exactly put me back in my body himself, but he let me out of his layer and I was able to find help in the spirit world."

"From who?" Katara asked.

Now I smiled weakly. "My cousin Lu Ten. He helped me get back."

Everyone took in what I said, and it seemed like silence passed for a good minute. I'd told them about Lu Ten when I'd first started getting my memories back. They knew he had died at war. After an awkward silence, Kale finally said, "I guess I owe your cousin thanks."

Nodding, I frowned at the thought of my cousin. If he hadn't been there, I probably would've never made it back.

My stomach suddenly growled, and I winced immediately realizing how empty my stomach felt. I sat up once more, but this time I sat up more slowly. As I sat up, I winced clutching my chest again and saying, "I know you guys probably want to know more, but is there a way we can stop this for now. I feel like I haven't eaten in days."

Katara smiled, glad to see I was coming back to my own self. "That's because you haven't."

As Sokka and Aang went to grab me some food and water, I heard Katara say, "While they go fetch you something, I'll try and heal your wound some more so the pain can go down. I can see you're really uncomfortable."

Nodding, I winced again as a sharp pain shot through my chest. Kale crawled on the bed beside me then and held me up into a sitting position so I didn't have to strain too much. Katara crawled behind me so she was at my back, and she pulled some water from a bowl sitting nearby. As her water pressed against my back, I winced as pain shot through me. She started to heal me though, and slowly the pain started to ease.

Katara worked on my wound for a good five minutes, and she only stopped when the others came back in the room. Sokka carried a canteen of water, while Aang carried a plate of fish and sliced apples. As I ate, Katara propped up the pillows behind me so I could sit up on my own. Then I bit into the food with almost a sigh of relief. It felt like I hadn't eaten in weeks, which was very true.

As I ate, Sokka explained to me everything else that had happened while I'd been out. Apparently after the whole getting hit by lightning thing, we escaped from Ba Sing Sei which was taken over, the Earth King was dumped in the woods with his pet bear, then we met up with my water tribe father to plan the invasion, the water tribe warriors infiltrated a fire nation vessel taking it over, and we were now heading a straight course toward the Fire Nation. The idea of going to the Fire Nation kind of gave me an unsettling feeling.

"So, dad's on the ship?" I asked, placing my empty plate down beside me. Toph and Aang had left the room, and it was only Sokka, Katara, and Kale now.

My brother smiled. "Yes… He's really glad you're safe. He was so worried when he first saw the state you were in."

Katara muttered, "He had nothing to worry about. She was in good hands." Immediately I looked at my sister surprised by her attitude, but then I understood. She was mad at dad for ditching us all those years ago.

"So the spirit world… what was it like?" Katara asked now, trying to hide her annoyance with curiosity.

Frowning, I said, "Not that exciting… It was full of a bunch of trees and rocks, there was no sun, scary creatures were lurking all around me, and I had the spirit of fire practically keeping me prisoner. Overall it was a world I do not want to go back to anytime soon. I'd take being human over a spirit any day."

Katara, Kale, and Sokka weren't really sure how to respond to everything I had just said.

Staring down at the blanket that was still covering my lap, I immediately realized how stuffy and warm it happened to be in the room. I really needed some fresh air.

Sighing, I said, "I want to go up on deck. I need some air."

I started to swing my legs off the bed, but immediately Sokka stopped me. "Wait! You're in no condition to go anywhere right now."

Now I looked at my brother with a weak smile. "Sitting in bed isn't going to do me any good. I need to be walking and building my strength back up."

"No! You need to be resting," Sokka said, crossing his arms not liking my plan.

Kale stood now taking my side. "We'll just let her go up for a little bit, Sokka. She could use the fresh air. When it starts to get too much we'll bring her right back."

Sokka seemed like he wanted to argue again, but Katara was already giving in and walking over to me. Both her and Kale grabbed one of my arms and managed to ease me up from the bed to a stand. My bare feet were a little cold on the steel floor, but it didn't really bother me. It actually felt nice. I stumbled a bit as I fully stood, but I was able to catch myself. My chest burned still, and I felt the knife like pain again, but I ignored it trying to be strong. A little pain never stopped me before.

Somehow I found my strength, and we made our way through the hall once more back toward the staircase. At least this time I wasn't running for my life. Right before we went up the steps, Katara helped me put on a loose fitting blue shirt, and she then placed a black cloak around me to keep me warm. When I was bundled up, Kale and Sokka now took both sides of me to help me up the stairs. Sokka still didn't agree with me being out of bed, but he understood that I wasn't going to listen to him.

Finally I emerged from below the ship, and I almost gasped as the wind hit my body and aggravated my chest. Sokka and Kale noticed I tensed, because they both gripped my arms harder in case I fell. Taking in a few hard breaths, I said softly, "I'm okay… It's just going to take a minute."

Katara was still behind us as she spoke with worry, "Are you sure you want to do this Amber? You could give it another day."

Ignoring my sister, I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh cool air. Sokka and Kale still had a hold on my arm, but I ignored everything as I felt my hair blow from the breeze. The pain in my chest was there, but I pushed it to the back of my mind as I breathed in the salty air.

It felt so good to be back to the human world. It felt so good to be human again. The cold brushing on my face, my heart pounding in my body, and the blood rushing through my veins, felt so good at the moment. Opening my eyes again, I managed to find more strength inside me. Pulling away from Sokka and Kale's holds, I saw they weren't sure if they should let me walk on my own.

"It's okay," I reassured. "I've got this."

Clutching my chest again, I took a step forward and almost was relieved when I didn't stumble or fall. Slowly, I walked across the ship's deck and reached the railing. Clutching the railing, I immediately felt better having something to hold on to. I knew Sokka, Katara, and Kale had followed me but I ignored them as I took in the freedom I felt.

"I'm back…" I whispered, staring at the oceans waters with tear filled eyes. The sun was behind the clouds, but I could feel its warmth seeping through the gray in the sky. "I can't believe I made it back... It feels so good to be human again."

Kale stepped beside me at the railing now, and I felt his hand overlap mine from where it was clutching the rail. "I knew you would come back… You always come back," he said.

Smiling, I leaned into his side and I felt his arm immediately wrap around my shoulders and pull me closer to him. "I had to come back," I said softly. "There was no way I was letting you guys have all the fun."

Kale laughed now, and I smiled glad to hear his laugh again. It was definitely good to be back.

We stood by the railing for a few minutes, and I winced a bit whenever a cold breeze hit me. The cold aggravated my wound, but I tried to hide my pain from Kale and the others so they wouldn't worry anymore. I hated seeing them worry about me when there were more important matters at hand.

"Dad, she just woke up. I don't think now is a good time," Sokka suddenly said a little ways from me, and my eyes widened when I heard his words.

Turning, I looked behind me to see Sokka was standing in between me and my Water Tribe father about four yards away. The man I hadn't seen in what felt like a century, stood in front of Sokka but didn't seem effected by his words. Staring into my father's soft blue eyes, I saw he had changed some since I last saw him at the South Pole so long ago. His brown hair was a little longer as he kept it half up in a ponytail and half down. He had more of a beard than I remembered, though it wasn't too long. His body was much more muscular, and I saw a few scars on his skin from the many battles he had fought. He wore traditional red fire nation armor with a gold trim on the edges, and he had black boots on.

My water tribe father smiled at me when he saw my eyes meet his, and I could tell he was utterly relieved and overjoyed to see me awake and alive. Pulling from Kale, I turned fully to face my adoptive father now and felt tears fall down my cheeks.

"Da-" immediately I stopped myself, my voice catching as I realized what I was about to say. Was it right to still call Chief Hakoda my dad? Did he even see me as his daughter anymore, now that I knew who I truly was?

He stepped around Sokka, who let him go but wasn't sure if he should've. As my adoptive father approached me, I felt more tears fall down my cheeks when I saw relief on his face. He was happy to see me. He didn't care that I found out about my past. He still loved me even when I wasn't his daughter by blood.

"Dad!" I cried.

Rushing forward, I stumbled a bit as I fell into my loving father's arms. Even if he wasn't my biological father, he was the man I thought of as my true father. He hugged me close to him, and I shut my eyes tightly as he placed his warm fatherly hand on the back of my head. "Kaya… It's so good to see you're alive. I was so worried about you," he said, pressing his face into my hair. Even though he used my old name, I wasn't bothered by it. All I cared about at the moment was being in my dad's arms.

"Daddy… I can't believe you're here," I whispered, so glad to see him again… so glad to hear his voice again.

He pulled me closer to him, and I ignored the sharp stab in my chest just glad to see my dad again. "I've heard you've been through a lot these last few months," he said.

Nodding, I opened my eyes and frowned as I remembered everything that had occurred in the past. "Yeah… It's been a rough road, but I'm still trudging on."

He sighed, "You definitely are. I'm so proud of you, Kaya."

Now I smiled, glad to hear those words from my dad's mouth. It felt good to know the father who actually cared about me was proud of me.

Pulling away from him, I said thanks and went to say something else but something stopped me. A sharp pain suddenly shot through my chest, like a sharp dagger, and I cried out clutching the place where my wound was and losing my balance a bit. My dad quickly caught me, and I heard footsteps rush over having heard my cry.

"Amber!" Kale said. "Are you okay?"

Nodding, I said through the pain and gritted teeth, "I-I just need a minute."

Sokka's voice now said, "I told you guys we should've kept her in bed."

Katara said with worry, "We should get her back to the room. She's probably overdoing it."

Now I managed to push the pain back again. "No… I'm okay… Just give me a minute."

A shout suddenly rang from across the deck, and I looked over to see to my utter surprise the dude that used to be a part of Jet's freedom fighters and had carried around a giant wooden club. His name was Pipsqueak I believe… Staring at the very tall and strong dude, I was amazed to see him. What was he doing here?

"We've got company!" he said, then pointed towards a fire nation ship in the distance coming toward us.

Bato arrived out of nowhere, and he too was wearing Fire Nation armor. I realized he had been the soldier who had chased after me when I first woke up. To even more of my surprise, he smiled weakly at me. The man who didn't like me, and who had only seen me as the enemy in the past, had actually smiled at me. He must've had a change of heart after seeing the condition I'd been in.

Toph and Aang came over to the group that was forming then, and I also saw the short freedom fighter I'd met before named The Duke arrive too. My dad quickly took charge when the group all met together. "Everyone just stay calm. Bato and I will take care of this."

Sokka suddenly wrapped an arm around me and led me away from the group. Katara dragged Aang along behind us, and I heard Toph and Kale follow.

"Wait… Why are we going to hide?" I asked as Sokka led me behind some really large wooden crates. "Shouldn't we fight them?"

He helped me sit down against the crate as he answered, "Hopefully we won't have to. Besides… You and Aang need to stay here so they don't see you. Plus you wouldn't really be much help in a fight right now, Amber."

Aang scowled. "I'm not just going to sit here! I don't see why I have to hide?"

Kale was the one to speak next. "You know why, Aang… You and Amber are both thought to be dead, and we want to keep it that way. If the Fire Nation learns you're both still alive, they'll be chasing us across the world again."

My eyes widened at what Kale had just spoken. Dead… I was thought to be dead.

Immediately I wondered if Uncle and Zuko thought I was dead. They were probably devastated. Then I remembered Zuko's betrayal and I decided in the end he probably didn't care if I was alive or dead. Trying to push Zuko to the back of my mind, I knew thinking about what he did would only make me hurt more.

The ship came to a halt as I assumed the Fire Nation vessel had pulled up alongside ours. As the soldiers from the other ship came on board and began to converse with my father and Bato, I leaned back against the wooden crate. I was a bit surprised the Fire Nation soldiers couldn't tell they were on a captured ship. As the conversation went on, I saw Aang was fidgeting as he yearned to go knock some Fire Nation soldiers around.

Eventually we heard the two soldiers who had come on the ship turn and leave. As they left, Toph jumped up with sudden terror. "They know!" she shouted.

I guess they could tell they were on a captured ship after all.

As Katara and Toph rushed out to help fight the soldiers, Kale and Sokka stayed with me and Aang to make sure we didn't go anywhere. As the fighting went on, I listened to water and fire shooting back and forth.

"I should go help," Aang said, going to stand.

Sokka grabbed his shoulder and shoved him back down beside me. "No. Stay out of sight. If you want to help, then keep an eye on Amber."

He and Kale then left Aang to watch me- or more like babysit me- as they joined the fight. As the fighting could be heard from behind the crate we sat against, I saw Aang mope a bit, not happy to be out of the battle. "I hate sitting around and doing nothing," Aang muttered.

"Same here," I said, hearing a grunt from behind as someone must've been knocked to the steel deck.

As the fighting went on behind the crate we were against, I saw Aang wanted to say something to me, but he wasn't sure if he should. Then finally he mustered up the courage.

"Um… I know now isn't the best time, but I want to get it off my chest," he began to say. "Thanks for what you did back at Ba Sing Sei. You saved my life back there. Katara said if you hadn't jumped in the way, I probably would've died."

"I'm just glad you're okay," I said sincerely.

"Why'd you do it, though?" Aang asked.

Sighing, I leaned back against the crate saying, "I did it because you're my friend. When Roku told me what Azula was about to do to you, I couldn't just sit by and watch. Even if you're the Avatar, you're like a brother to me. I'd take a blast of lightening for you any day."

Aang blushed a bit, but I could see he liked what I said. "Thanks... That really means a lot."

Another moment of silence fell, and we heard the fighting behind us still. There was the sound of water hitting the deck, swords clashing, and grunts as the enemies were shoved to the deck.

After a minute of the awkward silence Aang broke it. "So what did Huo really say to you? I know you lied earlier."

At first I was shocked by his question, but then I saw he was serious. He had seen right through my lie like Toph.

"You can tell me," Aang said, seeing I was uncertain what to do.

I'd trusted Aang with my secret before back when Zhao had imprisoned me and badly burned me, and Aang was able to keep his promise then. I supposed it wouldn't hurt to tell him. "If I tell you," I began. "You have to promise to keep it between us."

Aang nodded his head to let me know he promised.

The fighting was still happening behind us as I answered, "Truth is… Huo kind of said he would let me live a normal human life, but when I die for good in the human world I'll be stuck with him for all eternity."

"So you're still connected to him then?" Aang asked.

Sighing, I leaned my head back against the crate. "Yeah… I'm hoping one day I can find a way to break the connection between Huo and I, so I won't be trapped in the spirit world for all eternity."

"Is the spirit world really that bad?" Aang asked now, and I looked at him with surprise. "I mean, I've been there a few times and it seems like a really cool place."

Thinking it over for a moment, I finally found my answer. "It's not being in the spirit world that's bad Aang… It's being there alone…" I whispered, my voice breaking a bit. "I don't want to be a spirit forever if it means never seeing Kale again."

Aang now saw where I was coming from. "Oh… Now I understand." Then he said, "But… How do we know if Kale won't be in the spirit world after he dies? I mean, when you said Lu Ten was there, I got to thinking... Maybe everyone goes to the spirit world when they die."

His words took me a bit off guard, but they didn't really reassure me. "Still… Even if Kale does come to the spirit world when he dies himself, I think Huo would do everything in his power to keep me away from him."

"Why would he do that?" Aang asked.

Now I muttered, "I think the Spirit of Fire has a crush on me or something."

Aang took this in for a moment, and then he smiled. "Well then I know how to fix your problem! All we have to do is find Huo a girlfriend," Aang said trying to lighten the mood. He wasn't really serious, but I could tell he was trying to cheer me up.

Rolling my eyes, I frowned a bit.

Aang could see he wasn't really helping my mood.

"Okay. In all seriousness now, I get what you're saying, Amber." Aang began, brushing his joke aside. "I wouldn't want to be stuck with some weird obsessed spirit for the rest of my eternity. When this war is over, I'll definitely help you find a way to break from Huo permanently."

"Really?" I asked. "You'd do that for me?" Then I smiled with relief. "Thanks, Aang."

He shrugged. "It's the least I could do. I mean I'm alive because of you."

A load roar suddenly rang through the air, and both Aang and I jumped as we heard the monstrous sound. Aang immediately hopped to his feet and turned so he could peer over the crate. As he did that, I tried to find my own strength and push myself off the steel deck. Using the crate beside me for support, I turned so I too could see what was happening.

To my utter terror, a giant snake like fish extended its long body out of the water. It was probably over a hundred feet long and had purple and teal scales. Its gills which were on the side of its face were a light green, and when it opened its mouth I saw very sharp looking teeth. The sea-serpent looked like it could break our boat into two with one snap of its mouth. Looking around, I saw the Fire Nation soldiers had retreated to their ship and were staring up at the giant sea serpent with terror. As I stared at the creature, I heard Sokka say from a few yards nearby, "The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?"

Toph shouted from where she stood a little farther away, "You make it too easy!"

As the serpent prepared to strike at us, a fireball from the other ship hit it in the head making it roar in rage. It turned from our ship and dived under the water, causing our ship to lurch forward from the waves it created and gain some distance from our enemies.

As the serpent attacked the enemy Fire Nation ship, our own ship immediately went full speed and we once more shot through the water trying to gain as much distance as we could. As we left the serpent and the enemies behind, I heard Sokka shout, "Thank you, The Universe!"

We were safe once again, and we were once more heading a course toward the Fire Nation. As everyone recovered from the battle that just passed, Sokka, Katara, Toph, and Kale walked back over to Aang and I.

"See… All taken care of," Sokka said with a smirk.

"No… We were just really lucky," Katara muttered.

"I actually saw a different outcome to that one," Toph muttered. Then she smirked. "Ha! Saw! Good one Toph!" We all rolled our eyes at her own blind joke.

Sighing, I leaned back against the crate again glad the everyone was okay. As soon as I did though a sharp pain shot through my chest and I winced clutching it once more. Katara must've noticed my discomfort, because she came over to me with worry. "Come on, Amber… You've had enough excitement for one day."

As she led me away from the others, I closed my eyes enjoying one last breeze as I went down the steel stairs back into the dark.

A few days passed after the whole Fire Nation sea-serpent thing. My strength was slowly coming back, and the pain was easing day by day. Three days after I'd woken, I decided it was time to try and wash the dirt and grime off of me. When I took the bandages off and saw the scar for the first time I winced. It looked pretty bad, and I could see that my skin was raw and blistered right where my heart was. It actually looked like a burn in a way. It was amazing I had survived the attack, but I guess I had Katara and that spirit water to thank for that. After I washed up, which was a bit painful but tolerable, Katara helped me replace my bandages. Then she gave me some fresh clean clothes which consisted of dark blue pants, and a light blue short sleeved shirt. It felt good to feel clean.

After another week of speeding through the ocean toward the Fire Nation, we needed to restock the ship and make some repairs from the previous battle. Also, some of the water tribe warriors who were on the ship with us wanted to get on land again. After Sokka looked on a map to find out where to go, we eventually arrived at a small pier that was actually called Seedy Merchants Pier. The name was familiar and I knew exactly why. It was the same pier we'd come to where we robbed the pirates and met up with my brother Zuko and his soldiers. That felt like so long ago.

My memory took me back to that day, and I remembered that was the big turn point. That was the day I left Kaya behind and accepted being Amber.

After Zuko's betrayal, I kind of wished I'd just stayed Kaya.

As the others went into the small village that the pier belonged to, Aang and I sat in a room trying not to be bored out of our minds. The room was just a small cabin with a bed, a table against the wall, and a chest underneath the table. There was a circular window in the room that you could see the ocean through, and I was kind of relieved to have some natural light.

Now that I was feeling better, I was beginning to see why Aang was so aggravated. It seemed like neither of us could do anything if it meant risking our discovery. We were almost on house arrest as we waited for the others to come back from getting us some dinner. As we sat in the room on the bed, and we played a card game to try and pass time, I could tell Aang's mind was somewhere else.

"It's your turn," I said, trying to get his mind back.

He sighed, not even bothering to take his turn. "I think I'm going to forfeit. I'm not really in the mood to play anymore."

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He frowned now. "This all just sucks… This whole invasion plan is going to get everyone killed. Storming into the Fire Lord's home is a risk, and I don't see anything good coming out of it." He then looked at me with sad eyes. "I mean look at you… We tried to invade the Fire Nation with the Earth King, and in the end we lost Ba Sing Sei and almost lost you." He placed his cards down now, and I watched him stand from where he sat on the bed across from me.

"I don't want you getting hurt again, and I definitely don't want Katara getting hurt either. Plus I'd never forgive myself if Sokka, Kale, and Toph got injured. I have to do this on my own. I need to face the Fire Lord alone."

When he said this I looked at him with terror. "Aang! You're crazy! I know the Fire Lord and he isn't a man to be taken lightly. He'll slaughter you in a single second if you do this alone. You can't even go into the avatar state, so how are you going to fight him on your own anyway?"

Aang turned away from me, and I heard him say, "I'll figure it out. All I know is I'm not taking you with me. It's my fault you almost died in the first place, so I'm not taking that risk again."

He started to walk toward the door, and I quickly got off the bed rushing after him. The pain in my chest was still there, but it didn't bother me as much as before. "Aang, stop! You don't know what you're saying," I said, grabbing his arm so he couldn't reach the door.

He turned sharply and said, "I do! I'm not going to let my friends die because of me!" Then suddenly he flung his hand toward me and a hard wind knocked me back. Falling to the floor on my butt, I winced as my chest complained from the sudden movement. Looking up, I saw Aang was already through the door and he shut it behind.

Jumping to my feet and rushing to the door, I tried to open it but it wouldn't budge. Ice suddenly began to seep through the doors cracks, and I immediately knew Aang was locking me in; or more like freezing me in. "Aang!" I cried.

"I'm sorry Amber, but I can't let you stop me!" Aang shouted, and then I heard nothing more. I assumed he was racing as fast as he could to flyaway before the others arrived. Immediately I lit a purple flame in my hand and shot the door with what power I had. My flame was still weak, but it was enough to heat up the door and melt the ice. As soon as the ice was gone, I shoved the door open and took off down the hall. Racing up the stairs that led to the deck, I caught sight of Aang as he now had his glider and was preparing to take off.

"Aang! Please stop!" I called, rushing across the sunset lit deck as fast as I could.

Aang looked back at me, then turned away saying, "I'm sorry! I have to do this!" I was just about twenty feet from him when he made his move. Putting his glider behind him, he raced forward and took off into the sky.

"AANG!" I cried, rushing to the ship railing and gripping it as I watched my friend soar off over the ocean. Horror filled me as I watched the young air bender fly farther and farther away. "AANG!" My chest suddenly pulsed in pain and I winced. The run probably didn't make my chest very happy. Falling on my knees, I felt exhausted from my sudden run. Though my strength was coming back every day, I still wasn't to my fullest health yet.

When the others got back to the ship, it was dad who found me still clutching onto the railing as I sat on my knees. Katara had completely not noticed me as she went down below deck to give me and Aang our supper. It took my dad a few moments to notice me, and I think the only reason he did finally see me was because he heard me sniffle.

My dad quickly rushed over to me when he finally saw me across the deck, and I looked up at him with agony. Tears were falling down my cheeks as I worried about my air bender friend.

"What happened?" he asked, kneeling beside me so he could grab my shoulders and look me over to see if I was hurt.

Hanging my head, I felt utterly at fault for letting Aang get past me. "Aang… He's gone," I whispered. "I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen."

My dad sighed and pulled me to him hugging me close to comfort me. "Kaya… Oh…" He realized he used the wrong name, though it didn't matter to me all that much. "I mean, Amber… It wasn't your fault."

I knew it wasn't, but I still felt I could've done more.

"Amber! Where's Aang?" Katara suddenly asked, and I jumped when I heard her voice come from nowhere. Both dad and I looked over at her to see she was breathing hard from taking a sudden run. Sokka, Toph, and Kale had heard Katara's shouts and rushed over to see what was going on. Sokka had Momo on his shoulder, and I could tell Momo was looking around for Aang too. When Kale saw me on the steel floor, he gave me a concerned look and I looked away to hide my guilt.

Answering Katara's question, I said weakly, "He left… I tried to stop him, but he was too fast. He said he was going to defeat the Fire Lord alone."

"What?!" Katara cried. "Is he crazy?! What is he thinking?!" When I looked back up at my sister, I saw she was crying, and I mean the sobs and everything. Nudging dad, I gave him a look telling him to go comfort her. He nodded in understanding, let me go, and got up. Walking over to his daughter, I smiled weakly as he hugged her close to him. Katara needed dad right now.

Kale's hands suddenly grabbed my arms and helped me up. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Nodding weakly, I wiped my eyes which were still filled with tears.

Sokka suddenly began to discuss what we should do next. Still hanging my head with guilt, I listened to Sokka, Kale, and Toph as they discussed what we should do about Aang's sudden disappearance. Katara was having a heart to heart with dad, so we decided not to bug her.

"What should we do now?" Toph asked. "With Twinkletoes flying off there's no way this ship will catch up to him."

"I hate to say it," Sokka said. "But we have to take Appa and split from the group. We need to get to Aang before he seriously hurts himself. There's a storm coming, and his glider's not going to be able to hold him long." Now that he mentioned it, I did see some dark clouds in the distance.

"Will we be able to catch up?" Kale asked.

"I hope so," Sokka said. "We have to go now though if we want to even have a chance."

Now my spirits were back up. "Let's go then," I said, suddenly feeling confident. Aang got away, and I should've stopped him. This was my fault in a way.

"Wait… I don't know if you should-" Sokka began.

"I'm coming! I came back to the human world to be with you guys and help you, not to be left behind!" I snapped. "Besides, I'm the only one who knows which way Aang went, and I feel responsible for not stopping him."

Sokka now looked amazed at what I'd said, and I could tell he didn't know how to respond.

Dad was actually the one to speak. "You kids go and catch up to Aang." Katara stood beside him, and she looked like she was in better spirits, probably because she had her heart to heart with dad. Dad continued, "We'll see you at the Black Cliff's with the invasion force. We'll prepare for battle when we all get there. Take care of each other."

As Sokka and Katara hugged dad one last time, I stood aside waiting for my turn. When they were done and walked off to prepare Appa (who was on the other side of the ship) for flight, it was my turn. Rushing forward, I wrapped my arms around my dad and he pulled me close to him.

"Be safe," he said.

"You too," I responded. Then I felt the need to say something else. "Just so you know…" I began, smiling at his fatherly embrace. "You're my true dad."

He sighed when he heard this. "I'm glad." He then kissed me on top of the head. "Take care of your brother and sister."

Now I laughed. "I think they'll take care of me more."

We all then piled on Appa, and I saw dad watch us with proud eyes. Bato stood beside him to wish us luck, and Pipsqueak and The Duke waved goodbye from the distance. Appa had a new saddle now, thanks to the water tribe warriors, so it was easier to sit on him now. Kale, Toph, and Katara sat in the saddle with me, while Sokka sat at the front taking Appa's reins. "Yip! Yip!" He said.

Appa took flight then, and I felt Momo grab my arm to have something to hold onto. As soon as we hit the air, and I told Sokka which way to go, Momo let me go and crawled over to Sokka's shoulder again. Sometimes I forgot the little lemur was even with us.

It was only ten minutes of flying when the rain started to come down. The storm that Sokka had mentioned earlier had finally hit us, and I had a feeling Aang was already feeling its force. As we went through the storm, trying to avoid lightning that struck down at us, I scanned below trying to find any sign of Aang. All I could see was water.

"_Amber… Tell your brother to turn more toward the west. Aang is on Crescent Island, back where my temple once stood," _Roku suddenly said, coming out of nowhere. It felt like forever since I'd last heard his voice.

"_Where have you been?" _I asked in my head.

"_I've been a little everywhere," _he answered. _"Now go… Aang's unconscious right now."_

Deciding now to argue with Roku, I did as he said. "Sokka!" I called. "Turn more to the west. Head toward where Roku's temple used to be!"

My brother looked back at me with amazement. "What? Why would I do that?"

"You're really questioning me?" I asked.

My brother went to say something back, but then he realized he didn't know what to say. Turning Appa toward the west, I heard him say, "I sure hope you know where were going."

Continuing to glance down below, I stared at the darkening waters more as I searched for Aang. The sun was down, and the sky was covered in clouds hiding the moon and stars. The lightening and wind had stopped, but the rain continued. As we flew more across the water, I saw a shape in the dark that almost appeared like an island.

Immediately I shouted, "Down there!"

Sokka didn't question me this time. Instead he sent Appa downward toward the island, and when we got closer we saw lava streaming from the place that was now a volcano. Aang was by the water, his body unconscious just as Roku had said.

"Amber… You're amazing!" Katara exclaimed, hugging me with delight that I'd helped to find Aang. Her hug made me wince a bit, but I smiled glad to see she was happy. She let go of me a second later, ready to get to Aang.

"Thanks Roku…" I said low enough for only me to hear. It was his help that got us to Aang in the first place.

When we finally landed, Katara, Sokka, and Toph slid off Appa to run over to Aang. Kale helped me down Appa's tail, and I was grateful because the flying and Katara's previous hug had really aggravated my injury enough.

When Kale and I caught up to the others, we saw Aang was awake and sitting up now. Katara and Sokka knelt on both sides of him while Toph stood in front. Aang looked utterly ashamed at what he had done, and at the worry he had given to everyone. "What about the invasion?" I heard him ask.

"We'll join up with my dad and the invasion force on the day of the eclipse," Sokka said. Aang looked like he was taking these words in.

Toph suddenly pointed over at something on the ground and walked over to it. "Hey what's…" Aang's staff was split in half and burnt as she picked it up in her hands. "Oh… It's your glider."

Aang brushed it off. "That's okay. If someone saw it, it would give away my identity. It's better for now that no one knows I'm alive." He took the glider from Toph then, and walked about ten yards away to the stream of flowing lava. With guarded eyes, he placed his busted staff into the lava. The stick caught fire as it sat in the burning liquid, and then it sunk below.

"Glad he finally understands," Sokka muttered.

As we started to load back on Appa, Aang walked over to me with guilt. Wringing his hand as he looked down with regret, he said, "Sorry for earlier Amber… I hope I didn't hurt you too much."

Smiling, I said, "It takes a lot more than wind to hurt me… I forgive you."

He smiled, glad to hear he'd been forgiven.

When we all got back on Appa, and the giant bison took off into the air, I pulled my knees close to me as we started to head deeper into the Fire Nation. Head closer to the Fire Lord…Closer to my insane sister… Closer to my brother Zuko who had betrayed me... Was I ready for this?

Was I ready to fight the Fire Lord and save the world?

Looking around, I saw the confident faces of Sokka, Katara, Kale, Aang, and Toph as we headed closer to my father. They were ready to end this war once and for all. They all had so much hope that we would win, and I could tell they weren't afraid of losing. If they were ready, then I knew I was ready.

My confidence grew as we flew toward the looming battle ahead.

**A/N: Thanks for reading, and let me know what you thought. =)**


	3. The walls crumble

**A/N: New chapter! Had some time this weekend. This chapter takes place during "The Headband" episode. Enjoy! Thanks for the support and reviews!**

* * *

Wind rushed past my face as we flew across the Fire Nation's territory. It was hot here which Kale said was a year round thing. From my memories, or what memories I'd gotten back, I never recalled a time where it was cold when I was really young.

"It's so nice… I don't think I've ever felt weather like this before," Katara said, lying back on the saddle with her hands behind her head and her eyes closed. She looked relaxed.

Sokka scowled from where he sat on Appa's saddle. "Don't get comfortable. This isn't a vacation! We're in enemy territory now." He was still wearing his Fire Nation armor from when we left the ship, and now his hair was done up in a traditional topknot that I did for him. I'd seen Zuko's in the past so I had an idea of what it should look like.

"Feels weird to be headed back home after all these years," Kale said. "I haven't seen this place since I went to the Earth Kingdom to work at the tea shop."

"I'm just glad we have Tea Bag to guide us around and show us how to be Fire Nation," Toph said using Kale's nickname, leaning back against Appa's saddle. "We'd be lost without him."

Aang sat beside her with a childlike grin. "I've been to the Fire Nation before too. I know all about their customs and traditions!"

Now I spoke up. "That was over a hundred years ago Aang… Things may have change-"

"Nah! I doubt it's that much different," Aang cut me off, excited to see the Fire Nation.

Immediately I looked over at Kale, who looked at Aang unsure if he should say something too. Kale and I were pretty sure the Fire Nation wasn't like what Aang remembered. The war and my Fire Nation family had changed it for the worst.

The one thing that really sucked about all of this, as we flew closer and closer to the place I'd been born, was that I was entering a land I didn't really know. Yes, I was the princess of the Fire Nation, but after growing up in another place with another family I felt like a stranger to this land. Even though these were my roots, and I would probably blend in easily with my golden eye color and black hair, I still knew this wasn't where I belonged.

The Fire Nation was my birth place and bloodline, but it wasn't my home.

We flew some more, and eventually we began to see small sets of rocky islands form around us. Birds that I tried to name from books I had read flew past us, and below I could see some other birds resting on the rocks and flying away whenever a wave almost hit them.

"Alright… I suggest putting some cover over us right now. Sometimes these islands have Fire Nation soldiers hanging out on them to guard the area from intruders," Kale said.

Katara nodded in understanding and began to use her water bending to create a cloud of fog around us. As she moved her hands around in fluid movements to form the thick cloud around Appa's whole body, she said, "I suggest we find a cave to stay in when we get to the first main island. Appa's probably starting to get tired from flying for so long."

"From the maps I memorized back at the palace, I believe we're almost there. The first main island shouldn't be too far ahead," Kale said.

"You memorized the maps?" Sokka asked, and I saw him shoot a glance back at Kale bewildered.

Kale immediately rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah… I mean, there wasn't really anything else to do there after Amber disappeared. She was really my only friend, so I got bored pretty easily."

Now I hung my head a bit, feeling bad for abandoning Kale when we were younger. Even though it wasn't my fault, and I didn't have a choice in the matter, I still felt bad for putting Kale through that.

An awkward silence fell over us for a few minutes.

"So what's the Fire Nation capital like?" Toph asked, suddenly breaking the silence. She couldn't see what was going on so she was probably bored. "I've heard only rumors about it, but from what I hear people live it up there."

"The rumors are pretty true," Kale said. "The Capital is home to some of the Fire Nation's wealthiest. The Fire Lord's palace is in the very center, surrounded by the city, and it takes up a vast majority of the area. The whole place is also in a sort of crater, so it's kind of difficult to invade from other sides. You have to head straight in or you're not going to get in."

"Makes me feel a lot better about this invasion," Sokka muttered. "Only one way in and out."

We fell silent then, and we once more looked down below through the cloud Katara was still making.

It had been two days since we'd caught up with Aang back at Roku's Island and began to head toward the Fire Nation. My chest actually didn't bother me as much now, but I was still not entirely up to my full strength. Katara said that was probably because my heart had been struck during Azula's attack and was still weak. It was also probably because I'd been out of my body for so long.

We suddenly began to fly over land, and Kale immediately perked up when he saw the rocky formations below us. "This is it!" Kale said. "One of the main islands!"

Sighs of relief could be heard from the group as we realized we'd made it. After what felt like weeks of traveling, we were finally about to land on Fire Nation soil. The only one in the group who wasn't relieved was me. In fact I wasn't happy about being in the Fire Nation one bit. I knew we had to go to stop my father, but that didn't mean I was thrilled about it. Being in the Fire Nation would probably bring back more memories I didn't want, and it also kept making me think of Zuko.

At the thought of Zuko, I frowned.

"_You don't know what it's like! I've been waiting for this chance for three years! I'm not going to lose it again!"_

"_Well you've lost me, so congratulations!"_

Pain shot through me as I remembered the feelings inside me at that moment back at the crystal caverns; the moment where Zuko made his choice and betrayed me. I felt hurt, anger, betrayal, and at one point I even hated him. I hated him for hurting me. I hated him for hurting uncle. I hated him for picking honor over family.

Tightening my fists, I shut my eyes trying to push the emotions back.

"_I know I've made mistakes in the past, but I would never dream of doing anything that would hurt my sister. I do love her…"_

Zuko's words to Katara shot through me like a knife.

"_You hurt me!"_

He lied. Zuko had hurt me. He burned me and took Azula's side. He preferred to be with a sister that hated his guts, instead of one that was willing to accept him into the group. Why couldn't Zuko see how much I cared about him? Tears threatened to spill from the hurt inside, but I pushed them back. If I started crying everyone would worry, and we had more important things to worry about.

A conversation sprung up among the group, but I didn't really hear what they were saying. It was something about spicy Fire Nation foods, but I tuned it out going back to my own thoughts.

Why did Zuko do it? Why did he choose honor over family?

Hugging my knees close to me, I bit my tongue to keep from crying.

Was I dead to Zuko? Did he not care about me anymore? He probably thought I was dead but at the same time didn't care, because he'd gotten what he always wanted. He'd gotten his honor. Tightening my hand into a fist, I had to do all I could to not let my emotions escape me.

Why, Zuko? Why would you do this to me?

Letting out a hard sigh, I tried to push the thoughts away and refocus on the conversation. Looking back at the others, I heard them talking about finding some clothes after we found a cave to stay in. As Katara continued to bend the cloud around us, I heard her state that our water tribe, earth kingdom, and air nomad clothing would stand out way too much in the Fire Nation.

"Well where are we supposed to get these clothes?" Kale asked. "We only really have money to buy food and supplies."

Toph smirked. "We can always steal the clothes… I'm sure no one will miss them."

"If it were anyone other than the fire nation," Katara began, "Then I would strongly disagree… but seeing as the Fire Nation has pretty much taken stuff from me in the past, I'm all for it."

I knew Katara was referring to mom, but I didn't comment deciding that would only bring up more unwanted memories.

"Hey! I think I see a cave below!" Aang suddenly exclaimed, pointing down through the cloudy mist at the island underneath us. Sokka immediately pulled on Appa's reins and we lowered downward toward the ground. Katara stopped bending when she was sure the coast was clear, and the cloud around us went away. When the cloud was gone I could see more clearly.

There was a cave about sixty feet away from us, and it looked big enough to fit Appa through no problem. The ocean could still be seen from the cave, but it was far enough downhill that we were safe from even the highest tide. The cave had a few random plants and some grass near it, and I could already see some wild life in the area. A few birds, with light yellow bills, and feathers the colors of black, white, and blue, were perched on some rocks. They watched us with curious big eyes. I remembered after a moment that they were called Toucan Puffins. I'd read about them before from books my water tribe father had given me. They were really cute in person.

As soon as we landed, Sokka slid off Appa and did a quick survey to make sure no enemies were around. When the coast was clear Sokka turned and said to all of us, "Great job with the cloud camo, but next time, let's disguise ourselves as the kind of cloud who knows how to keep its mouth shut."

We all were sliding off of Appa when Sokka said this, and I heard Toph sarcastically comment, "Yeah, we wouldn't want a bird to hear us chatting up there and turn us in."

Sokka stepped over to the toucan puffins perched on the large rock and pointed at them. "Hey! We're in _enemy _territory. Those are _enemy_ birds." The birds innocently stared down at all of us, and I laughed when one of the birds hopped onto my brother's head. Everyone followed my laughter while Sokka crossed his arms annoyed. Walking over to Sokka, I waved my hand near his head and the bird flew off with a squawk landing back on the rock.

"Relax," Kale said now to Sokka. "Once we get some disguises you guys will fit right in. The Fire Nation won't suspect you at all."

"Do you think anyone will recognize, Amber?" Katara asked.

Kale shook his head. "Doubt it. Unless they have her picture on billboards and walls, I don't see anyone recognizing her. They all probably think she's dead anyway."

Immediately I cringed at the thought of everyone thinking I was dead. Uncle was probably devastated in whatever prison he happened to be in.

"Good… and we're going to keep it that way," Sokka said. He then turned and began to lead the rest of us into the cave. Momo flew over and perched on Aang's shoulder as we entered the dark rocky hideout. Stepping inside, I lit a flame in my hand so we could light up the area and see. My fire bending still wasn't to its fullest abilities, but at least I could do something with it.

The cave we stepped into was empty of animals, thank goodness, and there was a long tunnel that seemed to lead into some other caves that were connected. Sokka took the lead as we stepped farther into the cave, and I could see he was scoping out the place. He stuck to the wall of the cave, almost creeping inside like a spy.

When he saw the coast was clear again, he straightened and turned around to look at all of us.

"Well, this is it. This is how we'll be living until the invasion begins. Hiding in cave after cave...after cave...after cave..." Sokka broke off at the last part, and I could tell he actually wasn't happy about this situation. Can't say I didn't blame him. It had been a long time since we'd stayed in a cave or even slept on the ground for that matter.

"Just like old times…" I said softly.

"Sokka," Katara began. "We don't need to become cave people. We just need some new clothes."

"Yeah, blending in is better than hiding out. If we get Fire Nation disguises, we'll be just as safe as we would be hiding in a cave," Aang added.

Toph walked over to the wall of the cave saying, "Plus...they have _real_ food out there. Does anyone wanna sit in the dirt and eat cave-hoppers?" She smashed her fist to the wall and little tiny insects hopped out of their hiding places. Momo jumped off Aang's shoulder and caught one eating it. Immediately we all cringed.

Sokka sighed in defeat. "Okay… Let's go get some new clothes."

We all decided to unpack Appa first, and when we had the sleeping bags off and the supplies in the cave, we headed out. The walk from the cave we were at to the nearest Fire Nation town was actually only about ten minutes. The sun was just reaching the middle of the sky to signify noon. When we got to the town the sun would be out, but hopefully we'd be able to get the clothes and run.

As we started to walk around the town, I began to see the houses were wooden and the people living in them didn't look very worried about the looming battle ahead. None of them probably cared though, because their side of the war wasn't expected to lose.

We stuck to the parts of the town that were least crowded, not wanting to be seen by the Fire Nation citizens. Whenever we saw guards walk by, we'd quickly go around the corner of a home to hide. Eventually we reached a building specifically designed for laundry where there were five or six lines of clothing in the backyard. They were hanging to dry, and it appeared the laundry man who was supposed to be watching the clothes was asleep in a chair by the wooden building.

We all crouched behind a large rock as we scanned the area to make sure no one would spot us. We weren't concerned about the older man knocked out in the chair. As we stared at the different types of clothing hanging up, I could tell everyone was taking their pick.

"I'm having second thoughts…" Aang began to say, realizing what we were about to do. "These clothes belong to somebody…"

Katara was already in motion, saying, "I call the silk robe!" She jumped around the rock and rushed over to a red piece of clothing hanging up. Eventually we all followed her lead and I grabbed a similar one to Katara's, though I didn't find out it what it looked like until we got back to the cave.

When we got back to the cave, we all immediately changed into our clothing. The girls and boys split up going behind our own rock formations for privacy. As I changed out of my water tribe clothing, I immediately saw what I had grabbed. The Fire Nation top was a light red silk one with a single strap that held it up on my left shoulder. It cut off above my belly button, almost like a tube top. The bottom was a darker red, but it was sort of a skirt with some pants legs beneath. The outfit covered the wound on my chest and the bandages still around my chest, but it revealed a lot of my past scars.

I assumed if someone asked about all the scars on my arms and waist, I'd just tell them I got them during my fire bending lessons. When I was finished getting dressed, I looked over at Katara and Toph's progress.

Katara had picked a similar outfit to my own, though her shirt was a little darker than mine and her skirt was longer. She took her hair out of a braid and let it hang down in its natural waves. Then she tied a small amount of it up in a bun and let two strands fall in front of her shoulders. She asked me if I wanted it done to my hair, but I shook my head and ended up putting my hair in a single ponytail.

Toph's clothing was also a darker red tube top shirt and was strapless, but she also wore a sort of shawl, which was a darker red than her shirt with a yellow stripe, and it covered her shoulders. She tied a brown belt around her waist, and she was wearing pants the same color as her shirt. We all looked Fire Nation, now that we were wearing the stolen clothes.

When we came out from our changing place, we saw the boys were already dressed. Aang was wearing a brown shirt with long sleeves and brown trousers, and over his shirt he wore a black sort of uniform that had red on the edges. He also wore a red headband to cover his arrow tattoo. He had short dark brown hair on his head from weeks of not shaving it, so his tattoo was covered completely.

Kale and Sokka were both dressed pretty much the same. They both wore long russet shirts with a lighter red collar, dark red pants, and they also had a red belt around their waist. Sokka had his hair up in a top knot while Kale kept his down.

As Toph put on some shoes knocking the bottoms of them off so she could still walk around barefoot but see, Aang looked over at Katara and I with wide eyes. "Wow! You guys look amazing!" he said.

Immediately, both Katara and I blushed at his comment.

"Oh… but you might want to take off your water tribe jewelry though," Aang said, and I could see he was sorry for having to say it.

Katara now placed her hand on the choker that was once mom's and I placed my hand on the bracelet mom had given me. We both sighed with heavy hearts knowing Aang was right. Taking off my blue water tribe bracelet, I handed it over to Katara who already took her necklace off. She walked into the cave so she could put them in her bag for safe keeping.

Looking away from where she had disappeared in the cave, I was surprised to see Kale suddenly in front of me. "Wow…" he said. "You look beautiful."

Blushing even more, I smiled saying, "Thanks… You don't look too bad yourself."

He smirked. "I'm actually glad it's not servant clothes like I used to wear. I've never wore middle class clothing before, so this is a new experience for even me."

Now I changed the subject from clothes and asked, "Are you glad to be back?"

Kale frowned a bit. "I'm actually not really sure… I was at first, but truth is I kind of feel like a stranger to this place now. I kind of lost all respect for the Fire Nation when Azula shot you with lightening six weeks ago."

Sighing, I said, "That makes two of us."

Later that night, we started to make camp and get settled. As everyone turned in for the night, I lied down on my own sleeping bag and tried to get some sleep. It was hard finding a comfortable position to lie on, seeing as my wound was still a little tender. Eventually I resulted to lying on my side and staring out the mouth of the cave. The moon was out tonight, so I saw the sky was light even in the middle of the night.

After a few hours of trying to fall asleep, I eventually gave up and got up off of my sleeping bag. Tiptoeing around everyone, I inched my way out of the cave and stepped into the night air. The air was still warm, but it was cooler than when the sun was up. There was only the sound of waves in the distance as I walked a little ways from the cave.

Walking down hill, I stepped over to the oceans water and let the liquid flow over my bare feet. The water was warm and felt good on my skin. The air was salty, and it seemed to relax me as I stared out into the dark ocean ahead of me.

As I stared at the ocean, a memory came back to me.

"_Amber! Wait up!" My six year old brother Zuko called, chasing after my five year old self as I ran along the beach. We were at our beach home on Ember Island, and Zuko and I were playing in the tideline. Mom was seated on the sand with two guards positioned behind her, as she watched Zuko and I play._

_As I raced across the sand, splashing and getting my trousers soaked in saltwater, I laughed enjoying the feel of freedom. Zuko caught up to me and grabbed me around the waist making me fall back. We both fell into the very shallow water, laughing as we were drenched. As we sat up, Zuko said, "Got you sis!" _

_Smiling widely, I said, "I let you get me Zu!"_

"_No you didn't!" He cried._

"_Yes I did!" I playfully said back._

"_No you didn't!"_

"_Did too!"_

Frowning, I turned away from the ocean hanging my head in agony. Zuko and I were once so close… what happened between the two of us?

Of course I knew what happened… I was taken away. The brother-sister bond was broken the moment Zhao snatched me up more than nine years ago.

"Amber?" a voice suddenly said, and I literally jumped when I heard the voice. Looking up in shock, I saw Aang a few feet away. My heart pounded hard at the surprise.

"Don't do that Aang! You scared me!" I said, clutching my chest as it tightened in pain.

From the moonlight, I saw Aang looked sorry. After a moment, he asked, "You can't sleep either?"

Sighing, I walked over to him taking my feet out of the warm waves. When I was back on the rocky earth I walked up to Aang saying, "Yeah… I have a lot on my mind."

Aang cocked his head to the side a bit, asking, "Does it have anything to do with Zuko?"

Immediately I looked at him with surprise. "How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess," he said, smiling weakly.

"Does you being awake have anything to do with my father?" I asked.

Aang frowned now and hung his head.

"Lucky guess," I said, stealing his very words.

Somehow Aang and I found ourselves seated on the rocky earth staring out at the crashing waves. As we sat and listened to the calming sound, I saw Aang looking over at me with worry. He could tell I was bottling up my emotions as much as he was.

"You know…" Aang said. "You haven't really mentioned Zuko since you woke up."

Hugging my knees to my chest, I tried not to lose my emotions. "I have nothing to say," I said with a leveled tone.

Aang seemed to not believe me, but he decided he'd open up to me first. He must've thought if he told me his feelings then I'd let out mine.

"You're right about why I'm awake… I can't stop thinking about what's to come soon," he began. "Truth is, I'm kind of scared of failing. What if I can't defeat the Fire Lord? What if I can't go into the avatar state when I really need it? What if this battle is lost and the Fire Nation wins?"

Now I said, "You don't need to be scared Aang… You'll definitely win. The way I see it, if we all have enough determination then anything is possible. And besides, you're not fighting the Fire Lord alone. It's my duty to fight beside you."

"I think I should do it alone," he said. "I know you want revenge Amber, but at the same time I don't want you to get hurt again. I think you should stay with the others when the battle begins."

Now I looked at Aang a bit annoyed, and also hurt that he didn't want my help. "This is what I want Aang. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time now. My father needs to be stopped before he hurts anyone else. I'm going to help you defeat my father, and I can assure you I won't let my father hurt me again. He's going to regret ever sentencing me to die."

Aang shook his head. "See… That's the thing… All you want is revenge. I don't want you going into this fight on a rash decision. Revenge isn't always the answer."

"It's not like I'm going to kill my father, Aang. I mean even if that's what the spirits want, I'm not the murdering type. I do intend on giving him a taste of his own medicine. This is what I want so you won't be able to stop me," I said firmly, looking away from him and shutting my eyes hard.

Aang took in what I said, and I assumed he didn't know how to respond.

Tears threatened to spill from the pain inside me. It seemed like my walls were starting to crumble. With defeat, I let out the emotions I'd been holding in since I'd woken. "I'm tired of sitting back Aang… I'm tired of feeling weak! I'm tired of feeling helpless! I'm tired of feeling unwanted and betrayed by people who are supposed to care about me… by people who are supposed to protect me and want me!"

Suddenly I felt tears pour down my cheeks, and I pressed my face to my knees in agony unable to control my emotions anymore. "It's not fair! Why would he do this to me?! I thought he cared about me! I thought he wanted to protect me! He said he'd never hurt me! He was supposed to be there for me!"

"I get you're not talking about your father anymore," Aang said, and I could tell he had won. Aang had managed to break down the walls I'd tried so hard to build. The stone had crumbled around me fully.

"He promised…" I now said, and I felt my throat tighten from the emotional pain inside of me. "He promised he'd never hurt me. He said he cared about me. Why would Zuko do this to me?" More sobs escaped me, and I felt Aang place a hand on my shoulder to comfort me. "He broke his promise! I hate him! I hate him so much!"

Aang listened to these words. "You don't really mean that."

Pressing my face harder to my legs I knew Aang was right. I didn't hate Zuko… I just couldn't get over the betrayal and anger I felt toward him. If I did see him again in the near future, I knew a simple apology wouldn't mend the bond he'd broken. All the trust I had toward Zuko was gone now.

Aang let me cry for a little bit, not saying anything. After a while of finally letting my pain out, I felt my body calm and my heart slow. Trying to get a hold of myself, I eventually stopped my sobs and sniffled.

When Aang saw my crying was over, he took his hand off my shoulder and asked, "Better?"

Nodding, I did feel better. It felt good to finally cry. It felt good to let all the hurt I felt inside me pour out. "I'm sorry," I whispered, lifting my head and wiping my eyes with my hand to try and clear my vision.

"You don't have to apologize, Amber. You have a right to be upset. I would be too if I had a brother who did that to me. You trusted him, and in the end he hurt you."

Holding my head down, I let my long black hair fall over my face so I could hide my pain once more.

"If you want to know what I think though, then it's this… If Zuko's too stupid to realize how great you are, then he definitely doesn't deserve you as a sister," Aang stated.

Wiping my eyes a bit more, I said softly, "I'm not that great…"

"You took a blast of lightning for me, Amber. You're a hero!"

"Like I said before… You're family Aang," I restated. "I wasn't going to let my family get hurt."

"You're one of the kindest and most caring people I know Amber. Hopefully Zuko will see that one day..." Aang stood now, and he got ready to go back to bed. "Just know Amber, that if you ever want to talk, I'm a great listener."

Nodding, I gave him a small 'thanks'. He smiled at me, then turned and walked off back to the cave to go get some sleep. After staring out at the ocean for a few more minutes trying to push Zuko to the deepest parts of my mind, I got up and followed the path he had taken, hoping I could get some sleep too and lock the pain back away.

The next day I woke up from a dreamless sleep and noticed my eyes were a bit dry from crying last night. Luckily I was able to wipe my face with a wet rag and wash away the evidence. No one noticed or commented that it looked like I had been crying, so I assumed I'd managed to hide it.

Around lunch we all went into town again with some money. Aang hid Momo in his shirt so we could bring the little flying lemur with us. We were mainly going to grab some grub, but at the same time some of us wanted to buy a souvenir of some sort. When we got to the crowded market area where the Fire Nation citizens and guards were, I knew it was the moment of truth. Walking through the town, I was surprised when I noticed our disguises were working. No one even looked at us as we headed over to a stall. We were blending in.

A few of us scanned the stall staring at the Fire Nation objects. After scanning the items, a few of us ended up buying something to match our outfits. Katara bought a red choker with a gold charm in the middle and a few gold bands to put on her arms, while Sokka bought a golden band piece to put around his topknot. Toph also bought a golden headband to put in her hair. At first I wasn't going to buy anything, but Kale picked up a golden hair piece that had a red jeweled lily on it and placed it in my long hair that was still in a ponytail. Katara shrieked with delight at how it fit me perfectly, saying, "Great eye!" and paid the vendor quickly without even asking me if I wanted it.

As we walked away from the stall, Kale said, "It suits you really well."

Blushing, I smiled at his compliment and touched the head piece glad Kale had picked it up. "Thanks."

When we started to look for a place to eat, we left the crowded part of the market and headed to the town square. As we walked Aang said, "I used to visit my friend Kuzon here a hundred years ago. So everyone just follow my lead and stay cool. Or as they say in the Fire Nation - "Stay flamin'"!"

Kale and I both grimaced, knowing that definitely was not the right term of the century. Passing a man seated on the ground, Aang said, "Greetings, my good hotman!"

The older man seated wasn't really sure how to respond, and so he waved with uncertainty. "Uh… Hi… I guess."

Kale now grabbed Aang by the shoulder saying, "Aang… That's not how people tal-"

"I got this Kale! Don't worry," Aang said, winking back at him. Then he proceeded to say 'hello hotman' to whoever looked our way. Kale shook his head and covered his face with disbelief.

Eventually we made it to a butcher shop for some lunch and Aang offered to wait outside. I'd almost forgotten he was a vegetarian. As we went inside and got some food, we ate for about ten minutes and then left to go back to Aang. When we got outside Aang was gone.

"Oh spirits…" I muttered.

Kale sighed. "That kid just can't sit still."

"What do we do now?!" Katara cried.

Sokka seemed to think it over.

Toph rolled her eyes. "Relax guys… Twinkletoes probably ran off to explore. Let's just go back to the cave and wait for him there."

We all decided she was right and we made our way back out of the town. As we walked back the way we came, I heard someone suddenly shriek, "Did you hear! The Fire Prince is back!" Immediately my attention was caught, and I came to a stop which caused Kale to stop too since I was holding his hand.

Looking over at the two girls who were probably my age or a year older, I saw them staring at a poster on a billboard. The other girl who hadn't spoken smiled. "He's so dreamy! I never understood why the Fire Lord kicked him out in the first place."

The first girl said, "It's a shame about the princess though… He must be so devastated."

Pulling from Kale's hand, I heard him ask what was wrong, but I ignored him as I walked up to the poster. Shoving in between the two girls, who were offended by my intrusion and stomped off muttering insults, I saw on the board a fine sketch of my brother.

The sketch had a good outline of Zuko's face, the shadow around his eye to signify his scar, and his long hair done up in a topknot with a golden crown piece on it. It was a full sketch of him- from head to toe- so I could see he was wearing fine palace clothing. His lips were straight and his eyes were somewhat void of emotion. Under his picture was a caption.

_Four weeks ago Fire Prince Zuko finally returned to The Capital after three long years at sea. He successfully took down the avatar and has been named a hero. Fire Lord Ozai held a three day long celebration to welcome his son home from exile. At the party Prince Zuko was asked how he was doing over the death of his sister, Amber, who to all of the nation's shock had turned out to be alive. He refused to comment on the matter, but Princess Azula did for him. She stated to the press, "Amber's death was a painful thing for both my brother and I to watch. My sister was brainwashed by the enemy and nothing we did could bring her back to us. She may have died a traitor, but deep down I know if we had gotten through to her more she would've come home. It's with a heavy heart I wish my sister peace." The Fire Lord held a second memorial service for his daughter, whom he'd thought to be dead for nine years. We send our deepest condolences to the Fire Lord, Princess, and Prince for their loss. _

Around the poster there were other news articles. Some speaking about my Uncle being arrested and placed in prison for treason, others discussing how Ba Sing Sei was conquered. There were a few to cover both Aang's death, and my own. Then there was one that I assumed was for the gossip trend, explaining that reports showed my brother had gained a new love interest with Mai.

So Zuko was happy, huh? Well isn't that just peachy!

"Amber…" Sokka said softly, knowing what was going through my head, and it was then I noticed the others had followed me over to the board. Looking back, I saw Toph looked unsure what was going on since she couldn't read the posters. Kale seemed ready to hold me in his arms if I crumbled, and Katara stared at me with worry. They could tell I was trying hard to hold in my emotions.

"Let's just go," I said with a leveled voice, walking past them to try and take the lead. They hesitated behind me, but eventually they followed not sure what else to do. As we headed back to the cave no one spoke to me, and I was glad. I was too intent on not crying again. When we got back to the cave, I left the group once more and headed back down to the water. They let me go, knowing I wanted to be alone. For some reason the ocean calmed me. Maybe it calmed me because the sound of the waves distracted my thoughts.

Sitting down by the water, I pulled my knees to my chest. Reaching to the ground, I picked up a seashell beside me and traced my hand over the smooth white surface. A few toucan puffins were perched near me, and I could see they weren't bothered by me one bit. It was good they saw me as invisible. That's kind of what I wanted to be at the moment.

Turning the seashell in my hand, I closed my eyes trying not to think. I tried to block everything and just focus on the water hitting the rocky earth in front of me. Zuko's image kept flashing through my head though.

Why couldn't I just forget about him? Why couldn't I just find a way to not care? Why did I care?

Of course, I knew why… Because deep down past all the anger I felt toward him, Zuko was still my brother and that would never change.

"Amber…" Kale suddenly said. He surprised me at first, but I calmed. Immediately I looked back down at the seashell trying not to shed anymore tears. I was tired of crying. He sat beside me with a hard sigh, and I immediately felt his warmth as his arm touched my arm. "You know… you have a right to be angry. You don't have to hide it."

Clutching the seashell tighter in my hand I felt its sharp edges dig into my skin. "I'm not," I lied, refusing to meet his eyes.

"I can read you. When you shut down like this, I know it's because you're angry. It's okay to be mad. It's okay to be hurt. You don't have to hide it from us though," Kale said. "We're all here for you. We know you're hurting over your brother's betrayal, and we want to help you."

"Help me…? I don't think you can help me with this one Kale," I whispered.

Kale sighed and fell silent for a moment. Then he said, "I hate seeing you like this… I really wish there was something I could do to make it better. I promise you though, that when I see Zuko again I'm going to give him a taste of his own medicine."

His words made me grimace as another memory came to my mind.

"_Zuko!" I exclaimed, racing over to my six year old brother who was feeding the turtle ducks floating in the palace pond. Rushing over, I tackled him and we both fell to the grass as I hugged him._

"_Amber! Don't just jump on me like that!" Zuko scolded, shoving me off and sitting up. "You scared me!"_

_Now I pouted, and I hung my head in shame. "Sorry… I just wanted to play. Azula won't play with me, so I thought you would."_

_Zuko was about to argue, but after he looked at the pout on my face he sighed. "Fine… What do you want to do?"_

_Grinning, I said, "Let's skip rocks! Then we can play tag! And then after we can go mess with Azula!"_

"_Whoa! Slow down," Zuko said. "Let's just start with the rocks before we plan the rest of the day."_

"_Okay!" I exclaimed, and then jumped up to go find some smooth rocks to skip in the pond._

Throwing the shell back on the rocky ground, I responded to Kale's previous comment about Zuko getting what he deserved. "That's just it Kale… I don't want revenge on my brother. No matter how much I want to pound his face in the dirt right now, when the time comes for me to face him I'm not going to hurt him. I refuse to. No matter how much he hurt me, he's still my brother."

I paused for a moment, trying to gather what I wanted so say next. When I figured it out, I continued. "I think the one thing that's killing me the most right now though, is that after everything Zuko went through he still trusts dad. He went back to the man who burned and banished him, and now Zuko acts like everything that happened to him in the past never actually happened. He's living the royal life he always wanted, but it just seems so fake to me. Almost like dad's planned Zuko's happiness out. Almost like dad's trying to regain Zuko's trust to win him over."

"You think your dad's scared Zuko might fight against him?" Kale asked, surprised

Pulling my knees closer to my chest, I nodded. "I have a feeling… From what I'm seeing, the party, the recognition, and the honor given to Zuko is just a show. Dad's playing him, because he knows that Zuko is a strong ally to have. He's trying to gain Zuko's trust again, so Zuko doesn't think twice about switching sides and stopping this war."

"You think Zuko would switch sides?" Kale asked.

Frowning, I said, "He almost did… Now he may never, if dad keeps blinding him with gifts and luxury."

Kale suddenly wrapped an arm around me and pulled me to him. Resting my head now on his shoulder, I shut my eyes just listening to the waves, trying to push Zuko farther into the depths of my mind. We sat there for almost an hour, listening to the peaceful sounds around us.

When Kale and I got back to the others eventually, we were utterly bewildered to see Aang was back. When he saw us he waved and quickly explained to us that he went to school. At first I couldn't take him seriously, but when I saw he wasn't joking my eyes widened.

"School! Are you crazy?!" I cried. "We're trying to stay low, and you're off learning in a facility full of Fire Nation citizens!"

Aang shrugged. "It's a good way for me to learn the new age Fire Nation customs… and besides… No one suspects me." Aang then turned to Sokka and Katara. "So will you guys please go as my parents? The principle said he's not letting me back unless he speaks to you."

Now I was confused. Kale however laughed, and I saw he was amused. "You got in trouble on your first day? That's great Aang!"

In the end Sokka put on a fake mustache and beard made out of Appa's fur, while Katara put her hair up in two buns and stuffed a blanket under a long shirt she borrowed from Sokka to look pregnant. They definitely did look the parent part I guess.

As the two _parents _and Aang went away to go talk to Aang's 'new principle', Toph, Kale, and I stayed behind with Momo and Appa.

We waited for what seemed like almost an hour until they came back looking sort of annoyed. Katara had already ripped her disguise off and put her hair back up.

Sokka snapped at Aang still playing the father role, "That settles it. No more school for you young man!" He also stroked his beard getting too much into his character.

Aang now complained. "I'm not ready to leave. I'm having fun for once, just being a normal kid. You don't know what it's like, Sokka. You get to be normal all the time."

Toph laughed mockingly at Sokka who looked annoyed.

"Listen, guys, those kids at school are the future of the Fire Nation. If we wanna change this place for the better, we need to show them a little taste of freedom."

At first I wasn't really sure where Aang was going with this. Instead of worrying about these kids, I felt we needed to worry more about the war.

"What could you possibly do for a country of depraved little fire monsters?" Sokka asked.

Depraved fire monsters? Kale and I both took in this insult, and then we said at the same time, "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

Sokka jumped and looked at us with surprise, then realization hit him and he smiled apologetically. "Sorry… Should really watch what I say."

Aang continued so he could finish what he was saying. "I'm gonna throw them..." he began, and did a strange little dance. "...a secret dance party!"

All of our jaws dropped.

Sokka was the first to recover, and he was still playing the father character. "Go to your room!"

Aang somehow, in some strange way, managed to get us to agree to his little dance party after a few hours of talking it over. At first we were greatly against it, but after a while of Aang giving us sad eyes and pleading stares, we all gave in.

The next day Aang went back to school to spread the word while we prepared the cave for the dance party. Somehow we gathered some funds and managed to buy some candles to put in the cave and some food for the guests. As we placed candles around the cave which we lit with a match instead of my purple fire, and Toph used earth bending to make a table for the food and a platform for the band that was supposed to come, I knew this wasn't going to end well.

We were inviting the Fire Nation here, and bringing them right to us. I admit I felt bad for these kids not getting to have fun, but at the same time we should've been to the next town by now.

Aang returned suddenly, a grin on his face. Sokka noticed he was back and said to him, "I can't believe we're having a dance party. It seems so... silly."

Aang beamed. "Don't think of it as a dance party, but as a cultural event celebrating the art of fancy footwork."

"In other words, a dance party," Kale muttered.

Night eventually came and it was time for the guests to roll in. Appa sadly had to go a little ways back in the cave, and I felt kind of bad for the poor guy. When he was out of view, Aang turned to all of us with excited eyes.

Well… I guess if Aang was excited about this, then I needed to be too.

Eventually Toph felt vibrations in the earth and announced that the group was coming. The kids still wearing their uniforms all piled into the cave looking around not sure what to think. Aang led a group of five kids with Sungi Horns and other instruments onto the stone platform so they could start playing. As music started up in the cave, I could tell all the kids weren't sure what to do.

Aang quickly jumped in front of the musicians announcing to everyone, "Welcome to the party guys. May I introduce, the Flamey-os!" He gestured toward the musicians, and then muttered something under his breath I couldn't read. No one made a move to dance.

"Now what do we do?" A thin kid asked, looking at his friends with uncertainty.

"This is when you dance!" Aang exclaimed.

There were a few comments in the crowd as kids were still really unsure.

"Oh, boy. Listen, guys...dancing isn't something you think about. It's a form of self-expression that no one can ever take away from you!"

The same kid said again, "Maybe it was different in the colonies, Kuzon. But we don't do that here."

Kuzon? Aang was using his old friends name… That was actually pretty clever.

"Sure you do!" Aang exclaimed. "You have for generations. It just so happens that I know several classic fire nation dances. A hundred years ago, this was known as "The Phoenix Flight"." He suddenly did a sort of squat and kicked his legs in front of him while he held his arms behind him like wings.

The kids were all hooked now.

"And this was the "Camelephant Strut"." Aang exclaimed, standing straight now and doing a few hops on his feet. He then summersaulted toward two girls in a fluid motion, and the girls giggled as he summersaulted back. As Aang showed them a few more dance moves, I saw the kids were smiling now.

Aang then walked up to a girl saying, "And this is how they do it in the ballrooms of Ba Sing Sei." He started to dance with the girl, and I looked back to see Katara frowning a bit from where she sat. Was that jealousy I sensed from my sister?

The crowd started to dance then, and Aang beamed with pleasure. Walking back over to us, he said, "See! They're already having a blast."

Smirking, I walked over to Aang and whispered, "I bet you Katara would have fun if you asked her to dance with you." Aang blushed now, and I saw him take in what I said.

"Your right!" Aang exclaimed, and then he practically ran over to Katara who was seated on a rock like bench a little ways away. As Aang practically dragged Katara onto the dance floor, I smiled when I saw Katara was eventually having a lot of fun. They danced for a few minutes, and I watched glad to see the two together. They made a great couple.

Kale suddenly grabbed my hand and I looked at him in surprise. "Let's show them how real Fire Nation kids dance," he said.

"What? Wait!" I cried as Kale pulled me out onto the dance floor. Before I could tell him I had no clue how to dance, he took my hand up above my head and spun me underneath our arms causing me to twist and stumble. When I did stumble Kale caught me around the waist and suddenly we were spinning through the cave. It felt like I was flying as Kale danced with me, and I laughed enjoying the moment so much. All thoughts about Zuko, the war, and my father left me as I enjoyed the thrill of the dance.

When we finished dancing, I was dizzy and holding onto Kale for support as I laughed. He was laughing too as he walked me back over to the others.

Sokka had his arms crossed annoyed, and it was then I realized he was still wearing his beard and mustache. "Whatever happened to first asking a brother permission before dancing with his sisters?"

"That's not a thing," Toph yelled over the music.

"Well it should be," Sokka muttered. "How'd you learn to dance like that anyway?"

Kale smirked. "You pick up a few things in a tea shop."

Suddenly the music cut off and gasps were heard through the cave. We all looked over to see an older Fire Nation man, and two fire nation soldiers at the entrance to the cave. One of the soldiers was a woman, and none of the adults looked happy.

Looked like the party was over.

The old man suddenly pointed at Aang saying, "He's the one we want! The boy with the headband!"

Aang looked alarmed, and he said, "Uh oh…"

"Well, it was fun while it lasted," I said.

Aang dashed into the crowd then, and the soldiers started shoving kids away to find Aang. To my surprise all the kids took their belts off their waists and tied them around their foreheads, giving us some cover. As the kids confused the soldiers, we split to the back of the cave where Appa was. Toph used earth bending to create a back entrance to escape through, and we all climbed onto Appa soaring out of the cave. We'd packed up all the supplies already, so we were ready to go anyway.

As we flew away, I sighed with relief glad we'd escaped. That was a big risk, but I do admit it had been fun.

"We're safe, Sokka. You can take off the moustache, now," Katara said.

Sokka shook his head smugly. "Oh, no, I can't. It's permanently glued to my skin." Smirking now, I leaned forward and grabbed the mustache tearing it off. He yelped as it pulled on his skin, and then he rubbed the red above his lip glaring at me. "Hey!" he whined.

Kale laughed, saying, "I think he looked better with it on."

Sokka snatched the mustache from my hand and attempted to put it back on. It fell off again and I smirked.

"Way to go, Dancypants. I think you really did help those kids. You taught them to be free," Toph congratulated Aang.

Aang shrugged. "I don't know. It was just a dance party, that's all."

Katara smiled. "Well, that was some dance party, Aang." She leaned over then and kissed Aang on the cheek. He blushed beat red. Now I smirked, glad to see Aang and Katara's feelings toward each other were becoming more visible.

Sokka (who had managed to put his mustache back on, though it was a bit crooked) clapped slowly saying, "Flamey-o, sir. Flame-ee-o."

We all laughed as we flew farther into the night sky.

**Third Person POV**

It was a little past midnight. A hooded figure walked down a path that led through an industrial area in the Fire Nation Capital. There were large steel buildings towering around him, and smoke stacks filled the night sky. The hooded figure came to a stop at some railroad tracks that seemed to intersect and go four different ways. Pulling his hood off, it could be seen to be Prince Zuko. He looked around with cautious golden eyes, searching for something or someone. His eyes were tired, and you could also tell they were guarded.

A large person suddenly came out of the dark shadow of a building. From the light of the moon, he appeared perhaps in his late thirties but had to be almost eleven feet tall. He wore one regular boot on one foot, and a steal boot on the other. On his forehead, there was a tattoo of a third eye.

"You sure you weren't followed?" Zuko asked, narrowing his eyes at the man who stared down at him annoyed. Zuko assumed his silence was a yes. "I've heard about you. They say you're good at what you do. And even better at keeping secrets." He stared at the man now knowing this was the moment he'd feared. He didn't want to show any sign of weakness with what he was about to say. "I know the avatar's alive. My sister sacrificed herself to save him, and I know she died in his place. She died, and he lived." Saying the words only made his voice shake. "I want you to find the Avatar… and end him. You'll be paid handsomely for it when the job is done."

The man nodded, his eyes staring down at the boy who was almost half his height. He turned sharply and disappeared back into the dark to go fulfill his orders.

As soon as Zuko was left alone, the young prince frowned, knowing what he was doing was wrong. If his father found out the avatar was alive though, then Zuko would lose his throne and his honor again.

As Zuko turned and began to head back toward the palace, he pulled his hood back over his head. His mind was racing though as he walked down the empty street. Images of his sister's death flashed through his mind.

It had all happened so fast six weeks ago. Azula had charged her hands and shot lightning at the avatar as soon as he went into the avatar state. It struck him for only a split second, but then it was suddenly cut off as Amber ran out of nowhere into the crossfire. His sister screamed bloody murder as the lightening coursed through her body attacking her heart. She dropped to the ground and convulsed, and all Zuko could do was watch the scene in terror as his sister died. Then a wave had come out of nowhere and knocked both him and Azula off their feet.

When he managed to look up from where he was sprawled on the ground soaked and sore, he saw Kale was holding onto Amber's limp motionless body with tears in his eyes. He was saying something to her, but from what Zuko could see her eyes were shut and she wasn't responding. Azula was on her feet then, and so were a bunch of Dai Li agents. They started to advance on Amber, Kale, the unconscious avatar, and his water bender friend whose name Zuko remembered to be Katara. Before they could get close, Zuko's uncle fell in between the two sides from out of nowhere and began to fire flames at the Dai Li and Azula.

"_Go! Get them out of here!"_ Iroh had ordered Kale and the water bender.

Zuko stood now and watched in a zombie like state as Kale picked up Amber in his arms and turned to run over to where the water bender was dragging the avatar toward a waterfall. As the water bender made an ice platform, her and Kale managed to drag and carry the two unconscious kids on it. Then the water bender sent them upward along the waterfall and they disappeared through the crystal cavern ceiling above.

Zuko's uncle surrendered when the kids were to safety, and the Dai Li trapped him in some earth. As Iroh was imprisoned, he looked at Zuko with disappointment. _"So you've chosen your path Zuko," _his uncle had said with a leveled tone. Tears were pouring from the old man's eyes. _"Amber's probably dead now… Do you even care?" _Zuko had hung his head to hide his pain. _"She trusted you… And you let her down. I hope it was worth it."_

Azula had said something to try and shut the old man up, but Iroh kept talking. _"A beautiful lily has now withered and turned to dust, but it will never be forgotten."_ Zuko knew the lily was Amber, and the dust symbolized her death. The proverb only made Zuko shut his eyes tightly as pain shot through him.

Azula had snapped then, _"Enough of your proverbs old man! I'm going to turn you into dust in a minute if you don't shut up!" _

Leaving his memories, Zuko stopped walking down the empty industrial street. Warm tears flowed down his face as his sister's scream still pierced through him. His sister was dead. This time she was dead for good. There was no coming back like she did before. She wasn't taken this time. She was killed. He'd seen it happen with his own two eyes.

Amber was dead, and he knew it was his fault. He was supposed to protect her, and to be by her side. Instead all he had cared about was honor. He'd lost one of the most important things in his life, because he was too stupid to choose the right path.

With fury he turned and smashed his fist into the steel building beside him. It hurt his hand like crazy but he didn't care. Falling to his knees, his body shook as he silently cried for his sister's death.

"Amber… I'm so sorry… I'm such a fool…"

He shut his eyes tightly as he felt agony toward his loss. He regretted it. He regretted it all so much. So then why was he still trying to hurt people? Why was he sending an assassin to kill the avatar? Why was he endangering the very people Amber had loved?

Zuko had no answer, as he cried on the empty dark street, letting all the pain, guilt, and regret escape him.

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**A/N: Alright! So don't get mad at me for adding Zuko's little thing at the end. I just really thought it would be cool to change up the meeting with Combustion Man a little bit and to show you all what's going through Zuko's head at the moment. Hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you thought! I'll try and get the next chapter up as soon as I can.**


	4. Mutated Fish

**A/N: This chapter is "The Painted Lady". I hope you like it. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**

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**Amber POV**

Sitting against the side of the giant saddle we were on, I held my Fire Nation bracelet in my hand fingering the flame symbols with boredom. It had been a day since we'd escaped the Fire Nation soldiers back at the dance party, and now we were traveling yet again toward our original destination. After morning came and the sun came out, we decided flying through the air would give our cover away, and so we found a river to travel on.

As we floated down the river on Appa, Kale lied back staring up at the sky, Toph had her eyes closed as if she were trying to nap, Katara sat and stared at the forest area beside us, Sokka attempted to try and fish, and Aang was in the water playing around. Momo perched on the side of the saddle watching his owner swim in the water with curious eyes.

"Are you sure no one will spot us on this river?" I asked.

Kale glanced over at me with a smile. "I'm positive. No one lives along this river. Besides, even if someone does their probably just fishermen and wouldn't think twice about turning us in."

Sokka smirked from where he fished. "See Amber… No need to worry."

Placing my bracelet back on, I said, "It's not that I'm worried… It's just that Appa's a really big giant flying- bison, and we're out in the daylight where anyone can spot us."

"Chill out Princess. You're starting to sound worse than Sugar Queen with your worries," Toph said. She was referring to Katara, who looked at Toph annoyed by the nickname she hated.

"I just don't understand why we're traveling during the day. I feel like we'd cover a lot more ground at night," I said.

Sokka shook his head. "Nope… That doesn't fit in the schedule, Amber."

I scowled. Sokka's schedule was starting to annoy me. About three hours ago he wrote out in ink pen an actual schedule to follow for the next few weeks. Our mornings would start with some breakfast right at dawn, and then we'd pack up the supplies and leave. Before noon we'd be allowed only one potty break, and then around lunchtime we only had thirty minutes to eat and do other things. In the evening, Sokka wrote, that we'd get one more potty break before dinner. By dinner we'd find a cave to stay in and turn in for the night. He had our whole day planned, step by step. Truthfully, I itched to burn the paper. I hated schedules.

Aang suddenly hopped back on Appa, and it was then I noticed he was covered in some gross goopy looking water. It almost looked like the water was mixed with an oil of some kind. "Hey guys… I think this river is polluted."

Kale was seated up now and looked at Aang with his arms crossed. "Probably from a factory nearby… pollution happens a lot in these parts of the Fire Nation."

Aang suddenly used air bending to get the water off and we were all hit in the process. I gasped at the wet on me and cringed at the gross liquid rolling down my face. Aang noticed he'd hit us, and he used air bending once more to blow the polluted water off our skin. Katara and Toph's hair were disheveled from the blast, so I was thankful to have had mine in a ponytail.

Sokka commented on Aang's observation, pulling his fishing hook out of the water and holding it in front of his face. "Well, that explains why I can't catch a fish around here. Because normally my fishing skills are... off the hook! Get it? Like a fishing hook?"

We all stared at him unsure what to say. He looked a bit surprised that none of us actually laughed at his joke.

Toph smiled. "Too bad your skills aren't _on_ the hook."

We all laughed then. Sokka scowled but put his fishing pole away knowing Toph was right. We weren't getting anywhere with fishing. We'd have to buy food elsewhere.

"It looks like we'll need to go somewhere else to get food," Katara began. Sokka had turned to us fully and was unrolling the long scroll he had written out earlier. It was long enough to stretch a good three feet. Katara rolled her eyes. "Assuming that'll fit into Sokka's master schedule."

Sokka looked down his schedule inquisitively. "Hm...it's doable. But that means only two potty breaks today!"

Kale pulled the map out then, and he and Katara looked it over. Kale pointed to where we were, and I saw Katara smile. She said, "Looks like there's a small village named Jang Hui up ahead. I'm sure there's food there."

We all decided to head that way, and when we got farther down the river we saw what Katara had been pointing out. A village stood in the distance, and just from what I could see it was surrounded by the polluted water. Appa flew out of the gunk then and landed on a flat rocky surface. Katara used water bending to get the gunk off of Appa's fur. When she was done, we managed to find a spot to hide Appa behind some big rock formations jutting out of the ground.

Making our way down the path that led to the village, I noticed there were more trees in this area than there were in the last place we'd been to. It was almost like we were traveling through a jungle like area of sorts. The earth was still rocky though, and the air felt even warmer. Reaching the edge of the river where the green and brown colored water lapped onto the rocks, we saw with amazement that the village was actually an island of its own, built in the middle of the river.

"I don't feel anything. Where is this village?" Toph asked.

Sokka looked a bit annoyed. "It's in the middle of the river! How are we supposed to get there?"

"I can help yah," a voice suddenly said, and we all turned in surprise to see an older man perhaps in his mid-fifties. He wore a vest with no shirt underneath, and trousers with holes in them. He also had a strange looking red and yellow hat on his head. His hair was white, and so was his pointed beard. He stood by a boat staring at us with excited eyes. "My name's Dock. Mind if I ask who you are?"

Kale quickly came up with an answer. "We're from the Northern Earth Kingdom colony."

He stared at all of us with surprise, probably because none of us (except for me and Kale) really looked Fire Nation to his eye. He passed it off though and said, "Wow... colonials! Hop on; I'll give you a ride into town." He hopped on the wooden boat beside him, and after hesitating for a moment we all followed.

As the man named Dock began to row us toward the Fire Nation fishing village, we all sat in the boat and stared down at the water disgusted. It was worse in this area of the river, and from the looks of it there were dead fish beneath. It was a sad sight to see.

"Why do you guys live on the river?" Katara asked.

Dock looked a little sad. "Because we're a fishing town. At least that's how it was before the factory moved in. Army makes their metal there." He pointed across the river to a giant steel wall that stretched almost thirty feet high. Behind it I could see steam from a factory. "Moved in a few years ago and started gunking up our river. Now our little village is struggling to survive."

"That's terrible," I said, unable to believe the Fire Nation could do this to its very own river. It was kind of sickening.

Dock hung his head as he continued to row. "It is sad, I admit, but we have to support the army as much as we can."

Scowling, I said, "So while the army poisons your water, you all can continue to praise the ground they walk on… Seems like a fair deal to me."

Aang elbowed me in the side to shut me up, but I ignored him. It seemed like my words had actually upset Dock, but for the better. Dock was thinking about what I said, and I could tell he wished my words weren't true.

When we finally reached the fishing village, we got off the boat and started to walk off. Aang thanked Dock as we walked away. Walking across the moldy wooden boards of the Fire Nation village we were at, I saw a few boards were missing creating gaps on the wooden dock. The whole village was built on a wooden platform, and I knew if the water continued to pollute the area and wear at the wood, the village would probably crash into the water soon.

As we walked past the villagers, I was horrified at how ill and depressed they looked. Some of them looked like they hadn't eaten a good meal in weeks, and others had skin that just didn't look the right color. The water was killing these people, the fire nation was starving them, and I wished more than anything I could do something to help.

My eyes shot over to the factory not too far away. How easy would it be to set the place on fire?

"This is awful…" Kale said, drawing my attention back to the group as we walked by some busted homes with no roofs, or some with no walls. It was a terrible sight, seeing all these people suffer. Even if they were the enemy, they were being hurt by my father as well. "Does nobody care in the Fire Nation anymore? When did we stop treating people like human beings?"

Sighing, I took his hand to comfort him. He smiled weakly at me and tightened his own hand around mine. I knew Kale was upset by all of this. This was his home, and from what he was seeing, my father was destroying it with the war. There's no telling how many people died from starvation and disease in this place.

"We have to do something to help," Katara suddenly said, having heard Kale's words.

Sokka stopped walking and turned to face her. The rest of us stopped too. "No, we can't waste our time here!" Sokka snapped. "We have a bigger mission that we need to stay focused on. These people are on their own!"

I winced a bit at Sokka's words. That was a bit harsh, even for him.

"These people are starving, but you turn your back on them?! How can you be so cold and heartless?" Katara cried.

Sokka stood his ground. "I'm not turning my back, I'm just being realistic! We can't go around helping every rinky-dink town we wander into. We'll be helping them all by taking out the Fire Lord!"

Toph immediately slammed her hand onto Sokka's mouth saying, "Hey, loudmouth! Maybe we should be a little quieter when we talk about_ taking out the Fire Lord._"

Sokka shoved Toph's hand away, and then looked at Katara again with hard eyes. "Come on, Katara, be reasonable about this. You know our mission has to come first."

Katara sighed, hanging her head in defeat. "I guess so."

"Let's just get what we need and leave," Aang spoke up, and he once more led us through the small village. Eventually we reached the one stall in the whole village that sold food. When we got up to the stall we saw the vegetables and fruit were rotted and there were some funky looking fish. Then to even more of our surprise, the shop keeper was the same man from before.

"Hey Dock, you work here too?" Sokka asked.

Dock smiled. "I'm not dock, I'm Xu. Dock's my older brother."

What?

Staring at the man who clearly was Dock, I was a bit surprised at how serious he was being. He really believed that he was both people.

"But we just saw you. You're even wearing the same clothes. The only difference is your hat," Aang said, pointing out that Dock was now wearing a more orange tinted hat.

The man didn't seem fazed. "Dock works on the docks, that's why they call him "Dock", and I work in the shop, that's why they call me "Xu"."

"What? What does Xu have to do with a shop?" I asked.

The man shrugged. "Beats me…" Then he gestured to his merchandise. "What can I getcha? Hey, I'll give you a special deal. If you buy three fish, I'll throw in a clam for free."

Kale and Sokka both pressed down on a clam on the table. The clam spewed out some funky looking green gook. We all immediately grimaced.

"Um… We'll just take the fish," I said to the man.

Sokka agreed, and then paid the man for three weird looking fish. Katara took them cringing at the weird mutations they had. I think one even had a third eye.

Sokka then said, "Mind telling your brother we need a ride back to shore?"

Dock nodded, and then ducked behind the counter. A few seconds later he emerged and was wearing the same hat as before. "Hey, colonials. My brother says you need a lift."

I slapped my forehead in disbelief, while Kale shook his head. Toph rolled her eyes, Katara and Aang looked confused, and Sokka just looked annoyed. As Dock began to lead us back to the dock, we were just walking back the way we came when a kid no older than seven ran up to us.

The kid was very skinny, and he didn't have a shirt. His trousers were stained by the polluted water and his hair was tangled and messy. His skin was stained with dirt, mud, and grime. He looked up at Katara with pleading eyes. "Can you spare some food?"

Katara immediately felt for this boy and handed him one of the three fish. "I wish I could spare more," she said. We watched as the boy thanked her and ran across the wooden platform into a home that didn't have walls, just wooden beams holding the roof up. A lady lied inside, and I could tell from the distance she was deathly ill.

"Come on," Kale said, taking my arm gently and leading me away from the child and woman. With a heavy heart, I followed.

When we got back to the other side of the river, we thanked Dock once again, and then we returned to where we had left Appa behind the large rocks. Appa looked happy to see us, and so did Momo who had stayed with the giant flying bison. Sokka climbed onto Appa's saddle, grabbed his scroll, and then slid back off. Walking back over to the group, he said, "Let's make camp here. We'll head out early tomorrow morning."

"I still say we travel at night," I said.

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Don't start that again, Amber. Remember the schedule."

Scowling, I crossed my arms annoyed. His schedule was going to be on fire if he didn't watch it.

Later we started to work on some supper. Katara and Toph used their bending to clean out some water so it could be drinkable and not deadly. As Katara started to boil some water with a fire I'd managed to light, we all sat on the ground still feeling really bad for the villagers.

Sokka tried not to dwell on it too much and scanned over his schedule. "Our detour into town today has completely thrown off our schedule. It's gonna take some serious finagling to get us back on track."

Toph said with a note of sarcasm, "Finagle away, O schedule master."

Sokka narrowed his eyes at her, and then looked back at his schedule. "Well, for starters, it looks like we'll need to wake up forty-three minutes earlier every day."

"Forty-three minutes?" Katara asked, bewildered by the exact number.

Kale muttered to me, "Your brother takes this way too seriously."

"I heard that, Kale," Sokka snapped. Then he looked at us with all seriousness. "Look, we only have a few weeks to get to the Fire Lord in time for the invasion and the eclipse - which, by the way, only lasts for eight minutes. And we just lost a whole day. So if we want to make up the time and stay on schedule, we have to wake up early!"

No pressure at all…

"Well… I'm not waking up early," Toph protested.

Sokka thoughtfully said, "Or we could just cut out all of our eating breaks."

Everyone protested to that one.

"I got it, how's this?! From now on, we'll take food breaks and potty breaks at the same time."

"Don't we already do that?" I asked.

Sokka took in what I said, and I saw he realized I was right. "Anyway, no matter what we have to leave here first thing tomorrow morning."

We all knew he was right, and so that night we went to sleep with heavy hearts. The villagers were suffering, but we did have to focus on the mission at hand. Maybe after we dethroned my father, I could help tare down this factory and clean this river.

When I woke up in the morning, it was because Sokka was shouting in my ear. "Wakey wakey, Sunshine!"

Groaning, I pulled my covers over my head just wanting to sink back into oblivion. Truth was, I had a nightmare last night. It definitely wasn't a pleasant one either. In my nightmare I was back in the crystal caverns where I'd originally been shot. Only this time it wasn't Azula who shot the lightning at me, but my older brother Zuko. When he shot the lightning at me, I saw nothing but hate from his face. He smiled as he watched me scream and fall to the ground, saying to me, _"You only get in my way." _

Hearing my brother say those words to me in my dream made me want to crawl in a hole and hide away from the world. Were those feelings how Zuko had truly felt in real life? I mean there had been many moments in the past where I'd tried to stop Zuko from capturing Aang. Had he ever felt like all I was doing was getting in his way?

Was Zuko glad to have me out of his life?

Immediately I wondered what my brother was doing at this very moment. I could only picture him walking around the palace, servants bowing to him and waiting on his every need. I could picture Mai trailing beside him, both their hands interlocked as they went about living the life of luxury and royalty while the war raged miles away. I could picture my sister Azula grinning madly at my brother's happiness, glad she had gained my brother's trust and turned him against me.

Immediately I pulled the blanket tighter around me, just wanting to sink away from the world. All I wanted to do was find my hole and crawl in.

"Amber! I'm serious! We have to stick to the schedule," Sokka ordered, and suddenly he grabbed the blanket yanking it away from my grip. The rising sun immediately blinded me, and I winced at the change of light. When I opened my eyes, I saw Sokka was still standing over me, waiting for me to move.

Groggily, I sat up just to make my brother happy. He looked like he'd won a battle as he walked away from me. The others were up too, and Toph looked just as annoyed as I felt. Aang and Kale were both folding up their own sleeping bags, wanting to make Sokka happy. Katara on the other hand, was over by Appa. The giant flying bison let out a groan as if he were hurting.

"What's the matter, Katara?" Aang suddenly asked, walking over to where she stood by Appa. The poor bison looked sick from something.

"I think Appa's sick," Katara said, patting the fur of the bison who lied down with his eyes closed.

"What! Appa's sick? That's awful!" Sokka cried.

Kale smiled. "Aw… Sokka. You do care."

My brother looked annoyed. "Of course I care. I might as well just throw our schedule away now." We all shot a disapproving glance at him. He realized what he'd said, and he rushed up to Appa patting him to cover his tracks. "And I'm concerned because my big, furry friend doesn't feel well."

"He must've gotten sick from the polluted water," Toph said.

Aang looked worried as he walked up to his best friend. "He doesn't look sick. You okay, buddy?" Aang suddenly forced Appa's mouth open with his hands and gasped at what he saw. Appa's big giant tongue was a dark purple tint, like someone had thrown colored ink on it. "His tongue is purple! That can't be good. Katara, can you heal him?"

My sister had this odd look in her eye as she said, "It looks like he needs some medicine. Maybe we can find the right herbs in town."

As the others went to prepare to head back to the fishing village in the middle of the river, I saw Katara sigh with relief. Walking over to her with my arms crossed, I knew she had something to do with Appa's sudden illness.

"What did you do to Appa?"

Katara was amazed at my accusation, but when she realized I'd caught her, she hung her head in guilt. "I needed more time… He's okay. I just overfed him a little last night with some purple berries."

"You what?!" I cried, amazed my sister would do such a thing. Slapping a hand on my face, I shook my head in disbelief.

"Please, Amber. I'm trying to help these people… I just need more time," my sister defended.

"So stuffing Appa to the point where he's sick... That's your idea of getting more time."

"Please don't say anything Amber… Please!"

Her begging was a little over the top, but I gave in knowing Katara was trying to help this village. "Fine… I can see you're doing this for a good cause. No more feeding Appa though! Don't drag any more poor innocent creatures into your plan."

My sister nodded, and I could tell she felt bad for pretty much making Appa sick.

"Hey! You two coming?" Kale asked, suddenly walking over to my sister and I. "We're heading out to find some medicine and herbs."

We both nodded and followed him as he led us to the others. When we got to Sokka, Toph, and Aang, we made our way back down to the polluted water. Dock was back with his boat like before, and I found it very convenient that he always seemed to be there when we needed a ride. He rowed us over to the village again, and when we docked we all stepped onto the wooden platform with surprise.

The village was filled with activity. Men, women, and children all were gathered on the docks chatting up a storm. Children laughed and ran by us as they played tag on the wooden platform. Smiles rested on many of the villagers faces as they chattered amongst one another, or walked their merry way along the village.

As we headed through the village back to Dock's stand to ask about medicine, I saw my sister was trying hard to resist the urge to smile.

"You healed these people, didn't you?" I asked softly, so only Katara would hear.

"No… I brought them food. But that's a good idea."

I was upset with her for making Appa sick, but I was proud of her for her good deed. She was a hero in a way, helping these people even when Sokka told her to not bother.

Then a thought crossed me. Where had she gotten the food?

I had a bad feeling it was from the factory nearby.

When we got to the stand, we found Dock or as he was now known as by his hat, _Xu. _He smiled when we approached, and as we got closer I saw weird wooden figures on his stand. They looked like a young woman, and they had red marks on the carvings arms and face.

"Hey, Xu, what's going on with everyone today?" My brother asked, playing along with the _Xu _name thing Dock had going on.

"Ah, something amazing happened last night. Food was delivered to our village by a mysterious and wonderful person...the Painted Lady." Dock seemed so ecstatic over this news.

"The Painted who now?" My sister asked, surprised they thought it was a spirit doing these good deeds.

He picked up a wooden figure and held it out toward us. "The Painted Lady. She's part of our town's lore. They say she's a river spirit who watches over our town in times of need. I always thought she was just a legend. Until now." His mind seemed to go off into a far place as he imagined the spirit who was actually my sister.

"See, we don't need to help these people, they already have someone to help them." Sokka said to us. He then turned back to Dock. "All we need is medicine for our sick friend."

Dock frowned and put the statue down. "Medicine? Sorry, all the medicine we have goes to the factory. That's why there's so many sick people in our village." He sounded so sad admitting it.

Katara frowned. "Looks like we need to stay another night so Appa can rest."

Sokka sighed knowing she was right. He turned to Dock asking, "You got any more food to sale?"

Dock instantly grinned and took up two mutated fish in his hand. One of the fish actually had two heads which made me gag. "Would you like the one-headed fish, or the two-headed fish?"

Sokka seemed to actually ponder over it. Then he grinned. "Two-headed!" He took the fish paying Dock for it. When he turned to us we all grimaced at his insane purchase. "What? You get more for your money that way."

Later that night we all turned in once more. Appa was starting to feel better, but I had a feeling he still wouldn't be up to flying the next day. Appa being sick was starting to make Sokka panic about not making it in time for the invasion. Kale kept reassuring him that we had plenty of time and weren't actually that far from the meeting point. Toph told us all to chill and said this would be a perfect time to meditate on our thoughts. I began to wonder if she was drinking the polluted water.

As we all turned in that night, I was just starting to go to a peaceful place. Someone shook my shoulder though waking me up. Groggily, I looked through the dark air to see by the light of the moon Aang looking down at me.

"Aang… What are you doing? It's like two in the morning," I said with exhaustion.

He seemed hesitant, but finally he gathered the courage to ask. "Can you teach me fire bending?"

He took me a bit off guard by his question. "Now?" I asked, though it was more of a complaint as I placed my arm over my face just wanting to go back to sleep. I wasn't having any nightmares, so it was the perfect chance to catch up on some rest.

I assumed Aang was giving me the biggest pleading eyes he could, even though I couldn't see them. "It doesn't have to be now. I was thinking tomorrow night, after everyone goes to sleep. Please Amber… I know I originally said I never wanted to fire bend again, but I'm wondering if maybe I should at least learn. I need to at the most know how to block fire without getting burned."

Sighing, I took my arm away from my face. Looking back up at him, I said softly, "Fine… We start practice tomorrow night. Now go back to sleep."

Aang must've been thrilled. "Thank you, Amber! It means a lot to me."

Rolling over, I pulled my blanket tighter around me. "No problem… Now go. Sleep."

Aang silently left me to go back to sleep, but I knew he was thrilled I'd agreed to teach him. He owed me big time.

The next morning we went to the village again. Appa still wasn't up for flying, so we had nothing better to do. When we got onto the village platform, we saw the villagers were ten times happier than yesterday. They had even built a wooden statue in the center of the village to honor The Painted Lady. There were villagers dancing around, while others were patting each other on the back with excitement. The boy who we'd given the fish to two days ago, walked by us as we headed into the village, and he bounced up and down as his perfectly healthy mother walked beside him.

So Katara had come back and healed these people last night. I was happy she had, but at the same time I had a feeling something bad was going to come out of this.

Reaching the food stand of the village, we saw Dock was standing behind it and the hat he wore showed he was Dock. He was polishing one of the painted lady stone carvings. It had turned from wood carvings to stone carvings overnight. I could tell people were taking this Painted Lady thing very seriously.

"Hey Dock… Is Xu around?" Sokka asked.

"Let me check!" Dock placed the figure back on the stall, then ran around ducking behind. When he emerged again he was wearing a different hat so he was Xu again. "Hey there! Back again, are ya?

Toph answered for us, "We need more food. Our friend is still sick and we can't leave until he's better."

Dock smiled. "Oh, well, that's too bad. Maybe if you guys are lucky, the Painted Lady will visit you in the night, and heal your friend."

"And maybe she'll cook us a midnight snack, and we'll all have a sing-along," Sokka said skeptically. He obviously didn't believe in this spirit mumbo jumbo.

Dock seemed oblivious to the sarcasm. "Yeah, maybe! You know, last night she visited us again. Healed most of our sick folks."

Aang looked around at the elated villagers with question. "Is that why this place seems so festive?"

"Yep, it's all because of the Painted Lady!"

My sister seemed uplifted by this man's excitement.

We paid for some more fish which were just as mutated as the ones we bought yesterday. Then we turned and started to head back to the dock where I had no doubt Dock would be waiting for us to give us a lift. I wondered who watched the shop while Dock was busy rowing us through the polluted water.

"Can you believe how much an entire village can be affected by one lady? I mean... spirit?" Katara asked suddenly, and she was beaming with joy as she saw the energy and elation around us.

Sokka sighed. "Well, I hope she returns every night. Otherwise this place would go right back to the way it was."

My sister looked baffled and came to a stop. We all stopped walking and turned to face her. "Why would you say that? Look how much better off these people are."

My brother looked a bit taken back by Katara's sudden defensive side, but he calmly said, "Yeah, now, but without her they wouldn't be able to fend for themselves. If she really wanted to help, she would use her spirit magic to blow up that factory." Sokka then made a hand gesture to represent a big explosion. "Ooooo…. Pow!"

"Spirit magic doesn't work that way, Sokka. It's more like..." Aang did a little elaborate dance with his feet. "Wooo…." My sister angrily stalked off while I glared at my brother and Aang. Kale and Toph looked uncomfortable as Aang did his little noise again.

Clearing my throat, I got both Sokka and Aang's attention. They immediately stopped making the noises and looked at me surprise. My arms were crossed and my eyes were narrowed at them. "Sorry to say… But you're both wrong. Actually, you both sound like idiots right now," I muttered, then turned to go follow Katara who was already seven yards ahead.

Though I wasn't happy to be half-spirit, my brother and Aang were making me feel ten times crappier about it with their stupid sounds.

Getting back across the river again, we all headed back past the large boulders to the place we'd been staying. Appa looked like he was feeling better, but we decided to let him rest through the night, just to be safe. As we ate dinner, I actually didn't have much of an appetite. Plus this was the third night in a row we'd eaten fish, so I was getting kind of tired of it.

Shoving my bowl away from me, Toph noticed I wasn't going to eat it and took my portion finishing it off. Kale appeared worried over my lack of appetite, but I smiled reassuringly to let him know I was okay. He didn't believe me, but he decided I'd talk to him if I needed to.

As we sat around the campfire I'd lit for the rest of the night, talking amongst one another about the battle ahead, I tuned everyone out and stared harder at the purple dancing flames. As I did, I had images flash through my mind. Some of the images were of my sister, her face holding no regret as she killed me with her lightning. More images were of Zuko, being bowed to by the servants for regaining his honor. Another image flashed of the party thrown in his honor, his eyes holding no pain over my demise as he laughed and danced with Mai.

Zuko had his honor… He had what he'd always wanted… All I had ever done was get in his way.

Getting in peoples way was something I seemed good at.

I really wished I'd dug a hole already to crawl in.

"Amber!" A voice said, and I jumped looking up to see me brother staring down at me with worry. He had his arms crossed and his lips were pulled in a frown. His eyebrows furrowed. "I've been calling your name for the last minute. You okay?"

Staring at Sokka's face, I could tell he was concerned over my distracted mind.

"Sorry," I said softly. "I'm fine." Getting up from the ground, I walked past my brother to gather the empty bowls up so I could wash them with clean water Katara and Toph had managed to make. Everyone watched me with worry, not sure if they should say something. When they didn't, I was grateful.

Later that night we started to fall asleep. As soon as I knew Sokka, Toph, Kale, and Katara were out cold, I walked over to Aang who was snuggled up where he slept. Nudging him in his side with my foot, he opened his eyes in surprise and looked up at me confused.

"It's night time… You want to learn fire bending or not?"

Aang looked surprised, and then he looked unsure. "Are you sure about this Amber? Your mind seems a little crowded tonight."

Crossing my arms, I said, "Do you want to learn or not?"

He quickly got to his feet, realizing I was being serious. Silently he followed me as we walked away from the others back down to the riverside. When we got there, I turned to Aang who came to a stop a few feet behind me.

"Okay… I'm going to try and teach you how I first started to learn. I don't remember much about practicing with Jeong Jeong, but I can teach you how I figured it out at the South Pole."

Aang nodded, his whole face showing he was serious about what was going on.

"We'll start with breathing tonight, then tomorrow night we'll work on stance, and finally we'll try and get you to produce a flame. It took me three weeks to do it where I could actually control the flame, so don't get upset if you can't do it right away?"

Aang nodded again, listening to what I said. Then he got curious. "Wait… If you lost your memory then how did you know you could fire bend?"

"I don't know…" I said looking at the ground with furrowed brows. "I guess it's just something I always knew I could do."

That night Aang and I sat across from one another meditating. I showed him how to breathe correctly, and I explained to him that fire needed oxygen to survive. "If I'm incased in something with no air, then fire bending would be impossible," I explained.

"Got it… Breathe in, exhale, fire bend," Aang said, as if making a mental note in his mind.

We sat across from one another for about an hour, just meditating and breathing. As we did my mind started to wander again. It took me back to the crystal caverns once more as the memory of my death replayed in my head.

I remembered the anger I felt toward Zuko as he betrayed me.

I remembered the determination I felt as I raced into the lightning strike.

I remembered the pain.

My chest suddenly felt like a dagger was sliced through it, and I gasped clutching the place that was still bandaged but had been healing pretty well over the last few weeks. Aang opened his eyes from his meditation and looked at me with worry, seeing the pain shoot across my face. Shutting my eyes, I tried to push the pain back not wanting to seem weak and helpless in front of Aang.

"Amber…?" Aang began.

"I'm fine," I snapped, but the dagger was still digging in my chest. "Just give me a minute."

"Maybe I should-" Aang began, but I cut him off once more.

"No. I'm okay. I just aggravated it," I said, sweat beading down my forehead as I tried to breathe and push the pain back. The dagger slowly came out, and I sighed with relief when the pain finally dulled. It was when the pain stopped, that I noticed tears had been falling down my cheeks.

Aang had stood now, saying, "This was a mistake… You're still in no condition to teach me how to fire bend."

Standing now, I only stumbled for a moment till I finally gained my balance. My head was splitting in pain from the sudden movement. "No… It's okay." I said, pressing a hand to my pulsing forehead. "It was just a memory… The pain was probably triggered by it."

Looking at Aang, I could tell that he didn't think learning fire bending from me was a good idea anymore. He thought I would reinjure myself, and his concerns kind of annoyed me.

"Aang… It was just a moment. I'm really fine. Teaching you fire bending has nothing to do with what just happened," I promised.

Aang looked like he was about to tell me to forget about teaching him, but he must've seen that I wasn't ready to give up so easily. Sighing, he crossed his arms and looked at the ground. "Fine… I'll let you keep teaching me. You just have to promise that if you're wound starts hurting you'll tell me?"

Nodding, I promised I would. He decided I'd taught him enough for one night and we needed to head back to bed so I could rest. I didn't argue, not wanting him to worry about me anymore tonight. As we both turned to head back to our sleeping bags, we stopped dead in our step. There coming from the direction of our campsite was a dark figure dressed in a big hat. She had what almost seemed to be fishing net go down her body like a veil.

Staring closer at the woman, who was surprised by me and Aang's presence, I could immediately recognize the woman's figure. It was Katara, and I could tell she was disguising herself as The Painted Lady. She'd used red berries to paint red lines on her face and arms.

"It's her!" Aang suddenly exclaimed, completely oblivious to the fact that this girl in front of us was human and not spirit. Katara panicked and took off toward the water, while I watched Aang run after her, my face holding both bewilderment and amusement. "Hello, Painted Lady spirit!" Aang suddenly chased Katara across the river, and I watched as their two shapes disappeared into the shadow of the village.

It was only about a minute later that I saw Katara run back across the water toward me. Crossing my arms, I watched my sister with disbelief. Why wouldn't she just tell Aang it was her?

When she got back to the river bank, I watched from the distance as she gasped for much needed air from her run. Aang was running back across the river as Katara caught her breath, and he landed right in front of her when he caught up. Katara immediately pulled her large hat down over her eyes to hide her identity.

"My name's Aang… I'm the avatar," he said, a bit out of breath himself, and still oblivious to the fact that he wasn't talking to a spirit. You'd think being the avatar he'd realize it wasn't a spirit.

"Well, hello, Avatar. I wish I could talk, but I am very busy." Katara put on the best fake voice she could, and I had to resist the urge to laugh.

"Yeah, me too. I hate that," Aang causally said. Then he tried to get a peek at the face under the large hat. "You know, you're really pretty for a spirit. Besides Amber who is pretty, I don't get to meet too many spirits, but the ones I do meet...not very attractive."

Immediately I slapped my hand on my face, still unable to believe Aang had no clue it was Katara in front of him.

"Thank you, but…" my sister began, knowing her cover was about to be blown.

"You seem familiar too…"

"A lot of people say that," my sister tried to cover again.

"No… You really seem familiar," Aang said starting to get suspicious.

Katara now tried to walk away. "Look, I really should get going…"

Aang finally realized what was going on, and he used a blast of wind shooting it at Katara. Her hat flew off for a moment revealing her full features, and she quickly grabbed it pulling it back over her head.

"Katara!" Aang exclaimed.

Katara sighed with defeat. "Hi, Aang."

Walking over to the two, I said to Aang, "It took you almost five minutes to realize it."

Aang looked at me with surprise. "You knew?"

Crossing my arms, I nodded.

Aang now turned to Katara pointing at her in bewilderment. "_You're_ the Painted Lady ! But how?"

My sister took her hat off and held it to her side. "I wasn't at first… I was just trying to help the village. But since everyone thought that's who I was anyway...I guess I just kind of became her."

"So you've been sneaking out at night? Wait... is Appa even sick?" he asked suspiciously.

My sister hung her head. "He...might be sick of the purple berries I had been feeding him, but, other than that, he's fine. Amber made sure I left Appa out of my plans these last two days so he should be completely fine by tomorrow."

"I can't believe you lied to everyone so you could help these people," Aang said with astonishment.

Katara looked guilty. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have."

Aang grinned. "No, I think it's great! You're like a secret a hero!"

Katara seemed relieved that Aang wasn't mad at her. She actually smiled. "Well, if you want to help...there's one more thing I have to do."

Katara told us her crazy plan about infiltrating the factory on the other side of the river and blowing it up. She explained that there would probably be no one inside since it was so late in the night, so no one would really be getting hurt.

As Aang agreed to help her, so did I.

My sister looked baffled at me. "What? Why would I let you come? You're still injured."

Rolling my eyes, I said, "I'm not injured. I feel fine."

Katara crossed her arms. "Uh huh… If your fine, then do a cartwheel."

Now I was baffled. "A cartwheel…? Really?!"

She held all seriousness in her eyes to show me she wasn't joking.

Scowling, I held my hands up and twisted my body so my feet were in the air for a split second and my hands were on the ground. When I landed on my feet after doing a full cartwheel, I stood straight and looked at my sister with hard eyes. "There… See. I'm fine."

She ended up believing me. After she took off her Painted Lady disguise, she began to lead us away from camp up river toward the factory. As we walked, I clutched my chest trying to calm the sharp pains shooting through. That cartwheel hurt a lot more than I thought it was going to, but I wasn't going to let Katara or Aang know that.

Eventually we had to cross the river, and Katara made an icy bridge for me to walk on since I couldn't water bend like her and Aang. When we got to the factory, we stuck along the thirty foot tall wall following Katara as she led us to a sort of drain opening.

"This is the entrance I've been taking these last few days. It takes you right to the factory's door."

The entrance had to be only five feet tall and three feet wide. The pipe it happened to belong to was made out of steel. We all had to bend down a little bit as we walked through the dark pipe. Eventually we emerged on the other side of the massive wall, and we came face to face with the factory. The factory was huge, and I wondered if we'd really be able to pull this off.

"Come on. It's now or never," Katara said.

Rushing inside one of the large steel doors, we spent the next hour pretty much destroying machines and smashing the place up.

With some amazing luck, I walked by a bunch of barrels with blasting jelly in them. Aang and Katara helped me move the barrels over to a large machine that we had yet to destroy. Inside of the machine was gas, and I knew this place would blow as soon as we lit the barrels.

Finding really long rope in one of the other large rooms, Aang placed the end of the rope in one of the barrels and we trailed the other end out of the room. The rope stretched for a good fifty feet till it came to a stop. By that point we were five rooms down.

"We have to be quick," I said. "I estimate we only have thirty seconds to get out of this place before it blows."

Aang and Katara inched back toward the door that would lead us out, and I inched back with them. Looking over at them, I gave them the signal to run. They took off through the door, and as soon as they were gone I shot fire at the rope. As soon as the rope caught my purple flame, I turned sharply and ran for my life.

Aang and Katara were already outside the large factory when I caught up to them, and when they saw I was out they grabbed me on both sides and yanked me away from the steel massive factory. As soon as we hit the pipe that went under the wall, a loud explosion could be heard and the ground shook underneath us. We all stumbled and fell forward right at the pipe, and when we gathered ourselves we got to our feet and looked back at the mess we'd created.

The factory was on fire, and there was black smoke flowing up toward the sky from the massive building. Another explosion sounded, this time a piece of a steel wall shooting off, and we decided now would be a good time to leave. As soon as we got to the other side of the factory's wall, and Katara made another icy bridge for me to run across, we reached the other side of the river and were finally safe.

Exhausted… But safe.

"We did it!" Katara cried, rushing over and hugging me and Aang at the same time. We hugged her back, and then pulled away. Turning, we stared across the river at the factory, and we could see flames shooting up toward the sky.

"Great team work!" Aang exclaimed.

"That was awesome! Great idea, Katara!" I felt so proud of the three of us, especially my sister, for taking a stand and destroying the Fire Nation's factory. We were helping these villagers so much, and I hoped now their river would become clean once again.

When we got back to camp we were all excited and glad at what we'd just done. The sun was rising in the sky, so we wondered if the others were awake and had noticed our absence. Sokka would have a Hippo-cow if he knew what we'd just done.

To all of our surprise, when we got back we were greeted by a line up. Toph looked a bit annoyed, Sokka looked a bit furious, and Kale looked disapproving. They probably had woken up to all of us gone and had freaked out.

"Hi! Sokka! We were just...out on a...morning walk!" Katara came up with her excuse, but none of them looked convinced.

"Oh really… A morning walk?" Sokka asked, and I could tell he was trying hard not to yell. He held in his hands Katara's sleeping bag, and he shook it dumping grass out of it. Katara had tried to cover herself, but she'd only made herself even more suspicious.

"No more lying, you guys," Kale ordered. "You worried us enough this morning." He looked over at me to show he wasn't happy to wake up this morning and find me gone. I hung my head a bit feeling somewhat guilty for worrying him.

Sokka nodded to show we better listen to Kale. Then he pointed at Katara. "I know you're the Painted Lady. I know you've been sneaking out at night, and I know you've been lying about Appa and feeding him purplizing tongue berries!"

Toph stuck her tongue out to show she had eaten some of the berries too.

"Katara, what you did put our whole mission in jeopardy. We're leaving right now," Sokka snapped. Then he turned and pointed at me and Aang. "And how long did you two know about this?"

Aang held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I just found out this morning."

Sokka looked at me now wanting my answer. "Two nights ago… But come on, it was obvious!"

About two hours later we were all packed and pretty much ready to go. Katara, Aang, and I were all tired from our long night.

The sound of a motor suddenly echoed through the air, and we all turned to look toward the polluted water. To mine and everyone else's terror, three jet ski's shot through the water, and from the distance I could tell the Fire Nation soldiers on them weren't happy.

"Oh crap," I said.

"What's going on?" Toph asked, not really able to see.

Aang looked horrified. "Fire Nation soldiers are heading to the village."

Now Kale looked at Aang, Katara, and I, knowing we had something to do with it. His eyes shot to the factory, and you could still see smoke in the air. "You guys didn't!"

Katara rubbed the back of her neck and weakly said, "Yeah… we kind of destroyed their factory."

Sokka looked astounded. "You what?!"

"Are you crazy?! You guys could've gotten hurt, or captured!" Kale scolded.

"It was your idea!" Katara cried pointing at Sokka.

Sokka held his hands up in disbelief. "I was joking. I also said to use spirit magic and made funny noises. Did you even think this through? The army's gonna blame the villagers. They're headed there right now to get revenge."

"Well, what was I supposed to do?" Katara asked.

Sokka cried, "Leave! Do nothing!"

My sister now held all seriousness in her eyes. "No. I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me. I'm going down to the village, and I am gonna do whatever I can." Silence passed as Sokka took in her words.

She went to leave, but Sokka now stopped her. "Wait… I'm coming to."

Katara turned in surprise, and I was surprised too. "I thought you didn't want to help?"

Sokka sighed. "You need me, and I will never turn my back on you."

My sister smiled and rushed up to Sokka hugging him. He hugged her back with a smile. "Sokka. You really do have a heart."

Aang wiped a stray tear, saying, "He really does have a heart." Kale rolled his eyes while Toph socked Aang in the chest making him fall to the ground with an 'oof'.

As we prepared to head into the small battle against the Fire Nation soldiers, I walked up to Kale knowing he was upset with me for doing what I did. He turned to me when he saw me walk over to him, and I rubbed my arm not really sure how to begin.

When I came to a stop in front of him, I went to speak but he beat me to the punch. "Do you know how worried I was? Sokka and I thought something terrible happened to the three of you."

I was taken off guard for a moment, but then I let out a hard breath. "Sorry… I didn't mean to worry you," I said, hanging my head in guilt.

Kale stared at me for a moment, then let out a hard sigh knowing he couldn't stay mad at me. His arms wrapped around me and pulled me into his embrace. He pressed his face into my hair and I shut my eyes enjoying his warmth. "It's okay… I guess I need to stop worrying so much. I just don't like letting you out of my sight. Last time I did, you were shot and almost killed."

I frowned at the memory.

"Hey love birds! Let's go," Toph said. "Aang and Katara are already at the village."

We followed Toph over to where Sokka had a boat. Where he'd gotten the little wooden thing I'd never know. By the time we got to the village, the Fire Nation soldiers had run for their life on their jet skis and the village was cheering. Katara and Aang had beat the Fire Nation soldiers easily. Docking, Sokka helped Toph onto the pier while Kale helped me. When we were all on the wooden platform we made our way toward the crowd of applauding citizens.

Stepping through, we saw Katara was in the center of the crowd. She was wearing her Painted Lady outfit again, and she tried to hide her face from the villagers as they thanked her. The same boy who we'd given our fish to three days ago stepped toward my sister with a smile. "I knew you'd come."

Dock cried, "Thank you!"

Another random villager shouted, "Painted Lady, you're the best!"

Dock added, "Me and my brothers owe you a lot." He stared at my sister, and like a flash of lightning he realized who it was. "Hey, wait a minute! I know you! You're not the Painted Lady, you're that colonial girl!"

The boy who had spoken earlier now realized it to. "Yeah, you're the lady that gave me a fish!"

My sister seemed nervous now, realizing her cover was blown. We all tried to push through the crowd to get to her.

"You've been tricking us," Dock accused, his voice filled with fury. "You're a water bender!"

Another villager shouted, "She's a water bender! How dare you act like our Painted Lady?"

Sokka finally broke through the crowd as they booed at my sister, and he stood in front of her to defend her. "Maybe she is a water bender, but she was just trying to help you. Because of her, that factory won't be polluting your river, and the army is gone. You should be down on your knees thanking her."

"Sokka, it's okay," Katara said. Then she spoke to the villagers. "I shouldn't have acted like someone I wasn't, and I shouldn't have tricked you. But I felt like I had to do something. It doesn't matter if the Painted Lady is real or not. Because your problems are real, and this river is real. You can't wait around for someone to help you. You have to help yourself."

The crowd muttered amongst each other realizing she was right.

Dock looked apologetic as he said, "She's right, but what should we do?"

Toph's voice suddenly came out of nowhere, and she made it deeper than it normally was. "Maybe we can clean the river!"

Kale and I almost broke into laughter at her attempt to be a pretend villager.

"Yeah, we can clean the river!" Dock exclaimed. The crowd cheered. As they cheered Kale, Aang, Toph, and I finally made our may through the crowd. Dock bowed a bit to my sister in respect. "Thank you. You know, you're not so bad for a water bender."

My sister blushed.

Sokka leaned in some saying to Dock, "You wouldn't mind keeping that a secret, by the way, would you?"

Dock nodded. "No problem. Keeping my mouth shut is a personal specialty. My brother Xu, on the other hand, hoo! He's a blabbermouth."

Sokka, Kale, and I smacked our hands on our forehead with disbelief.

The next five hours we busily helped the villagers clean the river around us. We placed the gunk in large wooden bins, and when I asked Dock what they'd do with it, he shrugged saying they'd figure out something. Finally, after a long day of using nets to pull the green slime out of the water and make the river flow again, we were done. The water was clear, and you could see normal looking fish underneath.

The villagers thanked us, giving us some fish for free as their token of gratitude, and promising to keep Katara's bending a secret. When we got back to camp, we all slumped on the ground exhausted. Aang and I decided to put fire bending training on a hold for one night, just wanting to get a full night's sleep.

I had trouble falling asleep though. I wasn't sure why, seeing that I was so tired, and I pulled my blanket over my face annoyed. Why couldn't I sleep?

As I lied awake for a few hours, I pictured Zuko once more.

He was living the life he wanted for so long. The life of a prince. He probably didn't miss me.

_"He does," _Roku said, taking me off guard suddenly. His voice had come out of nowhere. _"You're brother lies awake at night like you do now. He wishes he would've chosen the other path._

_"Roku?"_ I asked. To my surprise he didn't answer, but his words stuck with me.

My brother missed me… He loved me… and he regretted betraying me.

This lightened my heart a little, and finally I let a peaceful sleep carry me away.

Maybe one day in the future, my brother and I could fix the relationship that now felt so broken.

Maybe in the future, we'd could look back on the past and laugh over everything.

That night I had no nightmares, and I was relieved.

* * *

**A/N: So that's the chapter. Let me know what you thought. I'm going to get started on the next chapter as soon as I can.**


	5. Fever

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry this chapter took so long. I had sort of a block, but I managed to finally get over it. Thanks for the reviews and continuing to read my story!**

* * *

"Amber… I'm not really sure about this."

"Look… You have to overcome your fear somehow, and this is the only way."

"But last time-"

"Don't think about last time!"

Aang stared at the leaf in my hand with deep uncertainty. The small red flame in the middle of the leaf stayed in the center as I controlled the flame. I'd actually used a match to burn the leaf and catch it a light. I wasn't sure how powerful my purple fire would be, and I didn't want to set the whole leaf on fire.

"Come on Aang… Even if you do somehow create another flame and lose control, I'll be ready to stop you. I can stop someone from fire bending, remember?"

Aang looked up at me still uncertain, but eventually he sighed and reached forward taking the leaf from me. As soon as the leaf was in his hand, I said, "Now just breathe and relax. Concentrate on nothing but the flame for the next thirty minutes." Aang obeyed, taking in slow breaths as he tried to concentrate on the flame in the middle of the leaf.

It had been five days since we'd left the fishing village, and I was officially taking on the role as Aang's fire bending teacher. Though I wasn't sure I could teach him as well as a master fire bender, so far we were making good progress. Aang had yet to hold a flame, but I was able to get him to use his breathing to make a flame grow bigger or smaller from a candle.

While Aang concentrated on the flame, I looked up at the dark sky and smiled when I saw the moon shine down at us. Then I frowned as a memory suddenly hit me.

"_Zuko…" my four year old self said, as I crawled onto my older brother's large bed and shook his arm roughly. "Zuko! Wake up! I want to show you something!" _

_My five year old brother groaned and turned over a bit so his gold eyes looked straight into my own. "Amber… Why are you up? Go back to bed." _

"_But Zuko… I really want to show you something," I whined, shaking his arm again._

_He rolled back over, grabbing his blanket and pulling it over his head. "No… Show me tomorrow."_

_I pouted. "But it will be gone tomorrow."_

"_Not my problem," Zuko said softly under his blanket, and I heard his breathing change again as he fell back asleep. _

"_Please Zu! I'll never ask you for anything ever ever again!" I cried, bouncing on the bed to wake him back up._

_Zuko let out a heavy sigh and pushed the covers down from his face. Looking over at me again, he said, "This better not be stupid."_

_I shrilled with delight and scooted off his bed. My brother groggily crawled off his bed and when he was standing and ready, I grabbed his hand yanking him out of the room. We left the bed chamber area of the palace, walked down three halls, rushed up some stone stairs, and finally reached the giant balcony I'd been on earlier._

_The balcony was where my father made his speeches to the giant crowds of Fire Nation soldiers, and sometimes nobility. The balcony oversaw the whole palace courtyard, and you could even see beyond the giant palace the large buildings of The Capital. The buildings and walls were not what I wanted to show Zuko though._

_Pointing up at the moon, I said, "Look Zuko! See!" I pointed up at the sky where the full moon was, and Zuko looked up with me. _

"_What? It's just the moon. I see that every night!" Zuko whined._

_I turned to my brother who had a scowl on his face and had turned to leave. Grabbing his arm, I said, "That's not what I was pointing at."_

_My brother looked at me with surprise and looked back at the moon again. That's when he saw it. A dark shape flew in front of the moon, its long body almost seeming to dance in the moonlight. From the distance, the shape was just a black silhouette and almost appeared bird like. It wasn't a bird though._

"_See, Zuko! It's a dragon!" I exclaimed. _

"_That's impossible…Their supposed to be extinct…" My brother whispered, staring at the shape that would fly past the moon, disappear for a second, and then fly past the moon again. _

"_It's so cool!" I cried, jumping up and down with excitement._

_My brother smiled saying, "Yeah… It is." Then he pulled me into a hug. "Thanks for showing me, Amber."_

_I beamed at my brother's gratefulness, and the two of us continued to look up at the sky watching the dragon fly back and forth across the moons light._

"Amber!" Aang cried, and I turned my attention back to Aang to see his eyes wide with panic. The flame had overcome the leaf and Aang was holding a ball of fire in his hand not sure what to do. Immediately I widened my eyes in surprise and reached forward to extinguish the flame in Aang's hand. He lost control of the fire and gasped as it flew at me.

Quickly I caught it and held the glowing fire in my hand, which it quickly turned into my own purple flame. Shutting my hand, I let the fire extinguish and sighed with relief that I'd caught the flame in time.

"I thought you were going to be ready to stop me?" Aang asked, waving his hands in the air as he frantically tried to understand why I hadn't been paying attention.

Immediately I hung my head ashamed. "I'm sorry, Aang. My mind was in another place. I was stupid to look away."

Aang sighed, calming down and dropping his arms to his sides. An awkward silence fell over us, and I knew what was coming next. "This is the third night in a row you've been getting distracted. Is it Zuko again?"

Scowling, I snapped, "I'm fine Aang! I just took my eyes off of you for a moment. It won't happen again."

Aang frowned. "So it was Zuko."

My eyes widened at his perceptive mind.

"Amber… I can't let you teach me anymore," Aang said. Immediately I went to protest but he cut me off before I could. "As much as I appreciate you trying to teach me, this isn't going to work. Your minds too clouded right now, and one of these nights I'm going to hurt you like I hurt Katara before."

"Aang… I-"

"No Amber… I can defeat the Fire Lord without knowing how to fire bend. Let's just forget this training thing and focus more on the invasion now." Aang turned and left me then, heading back up the rocky hill to the cave we were staying in for the night. He left because he didn't want to hear me come up with another excuse to why I was fine.

Sighing, I walked over to a rock jutting out of the ground and sat against it with a frown. Hugging my legs close to me, I pressed my face into my knees and shut my eyes tightly as pain shot through me.

My mind continued to race with thoughts and memories that I couldn't push away.

**Third Person POV**

Zuko walked along the dark hall of the palace, his gold eyes tired as he lost yet another night of sleep. Whenever he closed his eyes and dreamed, all he ever saw was his little sister dying in front of him. Her scream still pierced through his head, and he wanted so much to push it away.

As he walked outside of the palace and into the palace garden, he looked up at the sky above to see the stars and the moon shining brightly. He wondered if Amber could see the stars wherever she was. He didn't know what happened when someone died, but he assumed his little sister was in the spirit world. He wished so much he could speak to her. He wished he could tell her how sorry he was.

This was the second time he'd lost his sister. This was the second time he grieved over Amber's death. This time however, he grieved alone. His uncle was in prison, his mom was gone, and his father and sister Azula didn't seem to care.

His mind took him back to the day Amber first was taken from his life.

_A seven year old Zuko was woken up by the frantic shouts of his mother. He shoved his blanket off with worry and quickly clambered off the bed onto his feet. Rushing out of his room into the hall, he heard his mom shouting, "Amber! My baby! No!"_

_Zuko rushed across the hall, dodging a bunch of guards that were running around looking really frantic. When Zuko got across the hall into his little sisters room, he was horrified at what he saw. His mom was hunched over on the floor, her eyes pouring out tears as she clutched something tightly in her hand. Zuko's uncle Iroh knelt beside her, his golden eyes pained as he hugged Princess Ursa to him. _

"_Mom?" Zuko asked, stepping fully into the room. "What's wrong? Where's Amber?"_

_It was as Zuko came in the room, he noticed that all the contents that had once stood on Amber's dresser had been knocked to the floor. Her favorite brush, little rocks and stones she had collected over the years, some seashells, and other miscellaneous objects were scattered on the stone floor. There were small red dots soaked into the stone floor, and Zuko immediately registered the strange stains as blood. _

"_Zuko… Go back to your room," Iroh ordered the young boy, who was looking at the scene before him with wide eyes. Zuko shook his head slowly, still not understanding what was happening. _

"_Mom… Where's Amber?" he asked again, his voice shaking._

_His mom looked up at him, her gold eyes filled with nothing but pain and tears. In her hand, she clutched the gold bracelet that had once belonged to Amber. She said to Zuko with a broken heart, "She's gone… My baby girl is gone."_

"_What do you mean, gone?" Zuko asked, his eyes widening more as he took in his moms words._

_His mom broke into more sobs, and his uncle even began to cry as well. Zuko realized what she had meant. Amber was gone. The blood on the stone ground was his sister's. She was probably dead._

_Dropping to his knees, he broke out into sobs too as he realized his best friend was gone._

With a hard sigh, Zuko walked silently over to the small pond he had come to know so well over the last few weeks. Taking a seat on the stone bench beside the pond, he crossed his arms as he looked at the moons reflection in the water. His lips pulled into a frown as he thought about Amber once more.

His mind dragged away again as he returned to the past. This time he remembered the day he saw his sister for the first time in nine years. The day he learned his thought to be dead sister, was actually alive and well.

_Zuko stood at the ramp of the giant naval ship that had just smashed through the ice of the South Pole. The ramp was lowered and hit the snow covered world below. Zuko was confident that this village he and his men were about to invade was housing the avatar. He knew the hundred year old man he'd been searching for almost three years to find, had to be somewhere in this isolated place of ice and Water Tribe peasants._

_Zuko took the lead as he began to descend down the ramp, his armor heavy on him as he trudged forward. His helmet made his head itch, and the hard armor he wore almost dug into his skin, but he wasn't going to let discomfort get in his way. He was on a mission. He was ready to capture the avatar and regain his honor._

_A young man's loud cry suddenly rang drawing Zuko's attention to the villagers gathered ahead. A boy, maybe a year younger than Zuko, ran up the ramp toward Zuko and his soldiers with a strange wooden weapon in his hand. Zuko had trained for years in combat, and his Uncle who was his teacher happened to be one of the best fire benders in the world. This water tribe boy would be like a tiny bug to Zuko._

_The water tribe boy finally reached Zuko, but the young prince easily kicked the wooden club out of his opponent's hand, and then kicked his opponent off of the ramp. The young boy fell over the ramps side and landed face first in a pile of snow. Zuko was kind of relieved he hadn't hurt the guy too much._

"_Sokka!" a female cry suddenly rang out. As Zuko continued down the ramp with his soldiers behind him, the young prince looked over to see a girl maybe fifteen with long black hair helping the boy out of the snow. She was dressed in water tribe furs to keep her warm. He tried to not dwell too much on the girl, turning his attention back to the villagers waiting at the end of the ramp. However his mind couldn't get past the black hair. He didn't know much about the water tribe, but he did know that they weren't known to have black hair._

_Finally Zuko and his soldiers reached the villagers and scanned the crowd trying to find the avatar. He was pretty sure the avatar was male, and he had a strong feeling he'd be very old. He looked around, but he did not find any men in the crowd. Actually, all he saw were elderly and young women, a girl who looked maybe fourteen with brown hair in a long braid, and a bunch of children who appeared younger than ten. The girl with black hair had returned to the gathered tribe, and Zuko shot her a quick look over surprised when he saw gold eyes and pale skin. She was also very pretty, almost like a princess or child of nobility in a way. Was she Fire Nation? Her gold eyes were glaring at him like daggers. _

_Zuko immediately looked away feeling a bit intimidated. He decided not to dwell on the girl and refocused on the mission. "Where are you hiding him?" He ordered, scanning the crowd for any sign that any of the women knew what he was talking about. _

_No one made a response, and so Zuko was forced to show his aggressive side. He inched closer to the crowd picking out the oldest woman he could find. The oldest woman of the tribe happened to be standing beside the two only teenage girls in the whole village. One of those girls was the one with black hair. _

_Zuko knew he was going to look like a monster, but he had no choice. Reaching forward, he grabbed the elderly woman and yanked her forward so the crowd of villagers could see her. They gasped as the woman was handled roughly by Zuko. "He'd be about this age! Master of all elements!" Zuko snapped, hoping maybe he'd refresh some one's memory._

_No one made a response again, and a bit annoyed Zuko shoved the woman back into the crowd. The two girls gasped and caught her, and the gold eyed girl glared even sharper daggers at him. Too annoyed to care about these villagers anymore, Zuko shot a blast of fire above their heads not wanting to hurt them but show them he meant business._

_A hand suddenly grabbed his hand, which then caused his fire to immediately extinguish. His eyes stared at the golden eyed girl with bewilderment. She was a fire bender? What was a fire bender doing at the South Pole of all places?_

"_How dare you touch my Gran-Gran like that! You have no respect for anyone!" _

_Zuko was bewildered by her words. Her Gran-Gran? Clearly she was not related to anyone in this tribe? Zuko began to grow very curious of this girl, but he quickly covered it up and replaced his shock with a scowl. Yanking his hand away, he used his other and shot a weak blast of fire at the girl trying to get her to back off. She fell back with a shriek, her butt landing in the snow as the fire flew above her._

_Annoyed by this girl's rebellion, Zuko hissed, "I'll deal with you later traitor!" She glared even more at him, but the prince ignored her looking back at the villagers. "I know you're hiding him!"_

_The water tribe boy from earlier suddenly shouted a battle cry again. Zuko turned in the nick of time to see the teen run at him with his weapon which Zuko now could see was a wooden club. With fluid movements, Zuko planted his feet in the snow ducking, and the water tribe boy hit the prince's body flying over. The boy landed on the ground hard, and Zuko quickly stood straight creating a flame and shooting it at the boy. He dodged the flame with a roll, and then reached behind his back grabbing a wooden boomerang. He shot it forward at Zuko, but Zuko dodged it easily._

_The water tribe boy was on his feet again, and a little water tribe kid from the crowd shouted, "Show no fear!" The little boy threw a wooden carved spear at the teenager, who caught it with determination. He pointed the sharp end of the spear at Zuko, who only narrowed his eyes annoyed by this dude's determination. As the water tribe boy charged at Zuko, Zuko used the armor on his arms to smash into the spear and break it up. Then he grabbed the spear with his hand, smashed the dull end against the water tribe boy's forehead knocking him into the snow, and then broke the spear in half throwing it on the ground._

_It served the boy right for trying to attack a prince of the Fire Nation._

_Something hard suddenly smashed into Zuko's helmet, and the impact sent the prince stumbling a bit as pain throbbed through his head. He winced at the pain, and then fixed his helmet which had twisted a bit from impact. Looking at what had hit him, he saw the wooden boomerang lying in the snow. So boomerangs did always come back._

_Zuko was furious, unable to believe he had actually gotten hurt by this mere peasant. Lighting some daggered flames in his hand, he went to attack the boy but was stopped._

_The black haired girl rushed forward, her body stepping between Zuko and the terrified water tribe boy. The girl created a flame in her hand and said with fury, "Stop this! Whoever you're looking for isn't here!"_

_Zuko's eyes widened as he stared at her face more closely. She looked almost like his mother, especially when lady Ursa had been a teenager. He knew this from pictures of his mom in the palace._

_It couldn't be though…_

_Narrowing his eyes, Zuko was about to show the girl what happens when someone defies the Fire Prince, but something suddenly smacked into Zuko's legs knocking him over. Zuko smacked into the snow hard, his helmet flying off from impact. When he gathered himself, he stood and glared daggers at the cause of his fall._

_A boy of maybe twelve, with strange colored clothing and blue arrow tattoos, sat on the snow saying to the three teenagers of the Water Tribe, "Hey Katara. Hey Sokka. Hey Kaya."_

_Kaya… So that was the black haired girl's name… It really didn't fit her appearance. _

_The water tribe boy who was still on his butt, looked up at the strange kid with relief. "Hey Aang… Thanks for coming."_

_The boy, Aang, hopped to his feet and turned to Zuko with annoyance. Zuko and his men were already rounding up on the boy, prepared to fire. Aang held in his hand a large staff, and Zuko wondered if he was going to hit them with it. Zuko was getting tired of all these kids fighting him. He just wanted to find the avatar already._

_The boy suddenly smashed his staff forward and a harsh wind blew snow on Zuko and his men. Zuko stood there for a moment in shock, then he scowled and melted the snow off of him. _

"_Looking for me?" the boy asked, his eyes holding nothing but determination._

_Zuko was astonished. "You're the air bender… You're the avatar!"_

_The boy almost smirked when he saw the surprise on Zuko's face. Zuko was outraged and embarrassed by this new information._

"_I've spent years preparing for this encounter… training, meditating… You're just a child!" Zuko was totally unable to believe that this kid could be the avatar. He was supposed to be over a hundred by now. How the Agni did he only appear to be a twelve year old boy? Was he frozen in time or something!_

"_Well you're just a teenager," he stated._

_Zuko was amazed at what the boy said. Then he felt rage build inside him. Who did this kid think he was, calling the Prince of the Fire Nation a teenager?_

_With fury, Zuko shot a blast of fire at the boy who quickly blocked with his air bending. The two circled each other in the village, and Zuko continued to shoot fire at the boy trying to make him surrender. One of Zuko's flames went too far and almost hit the villagers behind making them cry out in fear. Zuko noticed the black haired girl try and deflect some of the flames with her hands._

_The air bender boy stopped then, holding his staff to the ground in surrender. "If I go with you, will you promise to leave everyone alone?"_

_Immediately, Zuko froze, surprised by this boys sudden surrender. Zuko gestured for his men to seize the boy, and the soldiers stepped forward grabbing him on both sides. As the soldiers took the boy's weapon and began to force him forward toward the ship, Zuko glanced back at the three teenagers of the tribe who watched their friend get taken away with sadness. The black haired girl though had a strange emotion flash through her gold eyes that Zuko registered as determination._

_Trying not to worry about it, Zuko walked away from the villagers back to the ramp of his ship. As he walked behind his men who were already on the ramp, the water tribe teenage girl rushed forward crying, "No, Aang! Don't do this!"_

_The boy looked back past Zuko, saying, "__Don't worry, Katara, it'll be okay. Take care of Appa for me until I get back."_

_Zuko scowled at the boy's words. There would be no going back._

_Zuko was only halfway up the ramp when he heard something: Shouts from the tribe behind him. Turning to look back, Zuko saw with amazement the black haired girl running at him with fury. "Let him go!" She ordered, rushing up the ramp with flames in her hand. She shot fire past Zuko at one of his men, who was knocked down on impact not expecting the sudden blast. _

_Annoyed, Zuko paced forward meeting her and grabbing her flaming hand hard. She gasped and struggled as he turned her around and shoved both her arms behind her back almost effortlessly. Reaching inside his armor, he found the rope he'd originally planned on using for the avatar, and he tied her hands hard. She grimaced at the rope digging into her skin, but Zuko was too aggravated to care._

_The water tribe boy and girl were rushing forward with horror at their friend being bound and captured. Zuko quickly grabbed the girl around her waist, a bit surprised by how thin she was under all the blue fur she wore. He then held a flame to her face, though he would've never dreamed of burning her. She was just a girl, and Zuko did have a heart._

"_I'm taking this traitor with me! If anyone follows, I'll burn her so bad you won't be able to recognize her!" Zuko wasn't serious, but he hoped the threat would get the anxious teens below to back away. They did just that._

_Zuko almost sighed, glad he wouldn't have to fight anymore with this weak looking tribe. Turning, he held a tight grip on the girl's waist and began to practically carry her up the ramp. She kicked and screamed the whole way, making Zuko wince and cringe as she hit him a few times with her boots._

_Finally, by some miracle, Zuko managed to drag the kicking and struggling girl on the ship and the ramp began to rise. "Head a course for the fire nation! I'm going home!"_

_The girl scowled and kicked at Zuko some more, and the avatar looked over at the girl trying to break from his captors to help her. Zuko knew he had to worry more about the avatar and not this girl at the moment. "Knock her out!" he ordered._

_A soldier came over immediately and smashed his hand into the side of her head. The girl immediately blacked out, falling limp in the young prince's arms. Zuko grimaced a bit at the force of the blow._

"_Kaya!" the boy shouted in terror, and then yelled, "You could've killed her!"_

_Zuko scowled. "Be silent Avatar, or you'll be next!"_

_The boy glared daggers at Zuko, but then he let out a hard sigh looking down at the steel floor in defeat. Zuko sighed too. He didn't mean to hurt the girl, but she had given him no choice. Using his strength, he managed to maneuver the girl up into his arms. When he had her up, he pulled her over his right shoulder and easily stood. He'd carried a lot more heavier loads in the past. This girl was nothing compared to other things he carried during his Fire Nation training._

_Zuko led his men through the ship and back up on deck. His uncle stood in the center of the deck, and when his eyes saw the cargo on Zuko's shoulder he looked dumbfounded. Then when his uncle saw the avatar emerge onto the deck, he was bewildered at how young the boy happened to be. _

_Zuko still held the girl on his shoulder as he shot his men orders. The staff was to be taken to his quarters, and the avatar was to be taken to the prison hold. As soldiers dragged the avatar away, he looked back at Zuko shouting, "You better not hurt her!"_

_Zuko scowled, and then he turned back to his uncle._

_Iroh did not look like he approved. "So… You've captured the _young _avatar. I'm truly impressed… And you also found yourself a girlfriend… Even more impressed."_

_Zuko scowled again at the sarcasm, then pulled the girl forward maneuvering her so she was lying limply back in his arms. When Iroh saw the black hair, light skin, and evident Fire Nation features his eyes widened in amazement. Then he saw her face, and his blood ran cold. It was an exact copy of how Lady Ursa had looked when she was a teenager. _

"_This girl is Fire Nation and has been conspiring with the enemy. She will be taken to-"_

_Iroh cut him off. "Great spirits! I cannot believe my eyes!"_

_Zuko was stunned by his uncle's reaction._

"_Zuko… Do you not realize who this is?"_

_Zuko's brows furrowed. "Should I know her? She's clearly a Fire Nation traitor. "_

_Iroh looked like tears were forming in his eyes. "Who does she look like to you?"_

_Zuko was taken a bit off guard, but he frowned as he knew what his uncle was saying. "I do admit… she sort of bares resemblance to mom… but that's impossible."_

_Iroh looked at his nephew intently. "Think about it Zuko… This girl looks about fifteen and is most definitely Fire Nation. Your sister Amber would be fifteen if she were still alive to this day…"_

_Iroh's words sunk into Zuko finally. After an awkward silence, Zuko laughed. Zuko laughed hard. He'd never laughed so hard in his life, since his little sister died. "That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard you say. This girl is not my sister! My sister is dead!" He said the last part stopping his laughter, and now his voice held pain and annoyance. Why would his uncle say such a foolish thing?_

_Iroh frowned. "They never found a body Zuko..."_

"_So…?"_

"_Think about it Zuko… This girl… She is Amber…"_

_Zuko knew his uncle was right, and his eyes immediately lowered back down to the unconscious girl in his arms. "It can't be…" Zuko whispered, his voice breaking. His eyes became moist as he stared down at the girl who most definitely was his long lost sister._

"_Amber has finally come back to us," Iroh whispered._

Zuko grabbed his hair as his eyes filled with tears. Amber had come back, only for Zuko to betray her and cause her to actually die for good this time. Sobs escaped Zuko once more as he pictured his sister's death.

He wanted so much to go back to that day. He wanted so much to listen to his sister.

He wanted a second chance.

**Amber POV**

"Amber!" a voice suddenly shouted, and I jumped opening my eyes in surprise. My back was killing me, and I realized I'd fallen asleep against the rock after an hour of hugging my knees and thinking about Zuko. Kale knelt beside me, his brown eyes filled with worry. "You look awful," he said, and his hand reached to feel my forehead.

I was pretty sure I wasn't sick, and immediately I went to shove his hand away. My arms ached though, and I couldn't really move. What was wrong with me? I felt fine a few hours ago.

"You have a fever," he said, and suddenly I saw his eyes become anxious. "I need to get you to Katara." Picking me up in his arms, it wasn't until I was off the ground that I realized just how awful I felt. My head rushed madly, and I felt my chest sting like crazy. My ribs even burned and felt like they were being squeezed. I groaned as I realized Kale was right. I was sick.

Somehow, sometime later, Kale was suddenly carrying me into the cool cave we'd been staying in. I was so out of it that I didn't remember the walk back uphill to the cave. "What happened?" Katara asked suddenly, and I looked over through blurry vision to see my sister worried.

"She has a fever… I don't know what's going on," Kale said anxiously, and suddenly I was lowered to the floor of the cave and placed on a sleeping bag.

Katara was suddenly beside me, her sisterly hand resting on my burning face. "She's burning up… Aang, bring me some water!"

"I'm fine," I whined, reaching up to shove her hand away. Kale grabbed my wrist before I could touch Katara and placed it firmly down beside me. Aang was suddenly in my line of sight and I saw him with a bowl of water. My eyes shot to Toph, and she looked worried as well. Where was Sokka?

"Sokka…?" I began, trying to recollect if my brother was going somewhere today.

"He'll be back later. He went to go train with Master Piandao to learn sword fighting," Katara said, her hand leaving my forehead as she used water to start her healing. Now that she mentioned it, I did remember Sokka getting accepted by Master Piandao to learn sword fighting. That was after the meteor fell from the sky yesterday and we all had to save a village from being burnt to the ground. Yesterday, I used my fire bending to stop the flames caused by the meteor completely, but at the same time my chest erupted into pain. Though the wound from Azula's blast had sealed, I still had some damaged tissue around the area that was slowly healing. Perhaps I'd messed up something in the area of my wound yesterday.

"The muscles around her ribs are inflamed," Katara said as her water suddenly came over my chest. "She must've aggravated them yesterday when she was stopping the fire."

"What can we do?" Kale asked.

My sister sighed. "I can calm the inflammation, but she's not going to be back to her fullest strength for a day or two. She's in a lot of pain though, so I think we should find her some herbs to make her comfortable. Numbing the pain will hopefully calm the fever."

"I'm fine…" I said again, trying to sit up.

My sister shoved me back down. "Stop being stupid Amber. Stay down before you upset anything else."

"This is all my fault," Aang suddenly said. "I should've never asked her to train me."

"She was training you?" Kale sounded surprised.

"Yeah… I thought if I learned fire bending I'd be able to defeat the Fire Lord. I was afraid I wouldn't defeat him by the time the eclipse passed. Amber wasn't ready to train me though. Her mind kept wandering, and sometimes she'd get these moments where she was in a lot of pain."

"I've noticed Princess gets in pain a lot when she fire bends," Toph said.

The conversation somewhat faded as my mind began to blur. Shutting my eyes, I suddenly felt so tired. However I didn't want to sleep. If I slept, that meant I'd see Zuko again. I was tired of dreaming.

"I'm making some tea… I found some herbs in the supply bag," Kale suddenly said, though his voice seemed far.

"I'll make some ice to cool it when you're done. She won't drink it unless it's cold," Katara said. Her voice seemed far too.

It seemed like I was in and out for a few minutes, but I refused to go to sleep. Whenever I felt like I was about to sink under, I'd open my eyes and try and focus on something.

Toph sat beside me at one point saying, "You don't have to act so strong all the time Princess. A girl who comes back from the dead has already proved her strength enough."

"I wasn't dead," I weakly said. "I was just stuck."

"If that makes you feel better then I'll agree with you."

It was only a little while after that when I felt Kale suddenly help me sit up. By that point I was shivering violently from the fever that had yet to break. Kale held a cup to my lips, and I immediately gulped on the cool liquid trying to quench my thirst. "She should be out in a minute or two," Kale said, lowering me back to the ground.

It wasn't until I felt the herbs finally kick in that I understood. Kale had drugged my tea again.

"You drugged me again," I said softly, my voice barely a whisper.

"Sorry love… It's for your own good." His warm hand rested on my forehead and I sighed at the familiar touch. "It's okay now… You can sleep."

Exhausted, I did.

When I did, a dream came to me once more.

_The giant steel door to the cold cell I sat in opened, and entering the room was Zhao. His gold eyes narrowed at me as he stepped over to me. Immediately I scooted away from him to the corner of the cell and pulled my whole body into a ball wishing he'd just leave me alone. My six year old form looked so weak and helpless compared to this giant man. Already there were singes in my torn dress from where Zhao had abused me._

_Zhao sneered and walked over to me, hissing, "You're so pathetic! Your father say's you have to die before you ruin his plans, but I honestly don't see what you could possibly do. You're a weak, good for nothing, little freak, who can't even fire bend when told to." _

_He grabbed my arm and I cried out as he yanked me toward him spitting in my face and making me cringe in disgust. "You're no better than a palace rug!" He yanked me up, making me scream from how hard he pulled on my arm. Throwing me across the cell, I hit the wall on the other side hard and slumped to the hard floor with blurry vision. Zhao's foot smashed onto my back as I tried to get up, and I was shoved back to the floor smashing my chin on the hard steel ground as I went. Immediately I tasted blood. "See… All you are is a bug." He shoved his foot harder into my back and I screamed louder as my bones started to feel the force of his boot._

"_Mommy! Zuko!" I screamed, kicking and screaming. _

"_Shut up! I told you your cries are useless! We're already a day's trip from the fire nation!" He took his foot off, immediately releasing the pressure on my back. Then his hand grabbed a bunch of my hair and he yanked me up. Screaming, I grabbed his hand as his pulling almost tore my hair from my scalp. _

"_You are going to die! Your mom and brother will not save you! Stop this foolish hope that you will live and accept your fate!" He threw me again, and I landed on the ground hard with a loud cry. _

"_Zuko!" I sobbed. "Zuko!"_

_Zhao kicked my ribs with his heavy boot, and I screamed again as I took the brunt of his attack. "You are a weak little freak that will never know what true happiness is ever again! I will crush your spirit, and when we get to the South Pole, I will freeze your heart in the deepest iciest waters I can find! You will never see your brother again!"_

_As I tried to move again, a very sharp burning sensation suddenly overcame my back and I shrieked as the fire burned through my clothing and licked at my skin. "No! No! MOM! ZUKO! ZUKO!"_

With a scream, I woke up and gasped as I tried to breathe. My face and body were covered in sweat, and I shivered violently from the fever I still had. Trying to sit up and throw the blankets off, I immediately had a hand hold me down.

"_You will never see your brother again!" _Zhao's voice screamed in my head again. _"I will kill you!"_

"NO! Let me go! Zuko! Zuko!" I cried, going to hit my captor. Another hand grabbed me and I screamed again as I began to struggle against my captor. "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"

"Amber! Stop! It was just a dream! You're okay!"

Immediately I froze, my breathing hard and my body in agony as I took in the voice that had just spoken. It was not Zhao's…

I was starting to come to my senses. "Sokka…" I whispered, opening my eyes to see with blurry vision my brother was firmly holding onto my hand and had it pinned to the sleeping bag I lied on. His other hand was holding my shoulder down so I couldn't move.

When he saw I had calmed, he sighed and said with deep worry, "It was just a nightmare… No one's hurting you."

"Zhao…" I whispered. "He was-"

"It was a dream… Nothing more," Sokka whispered, slowly letting go of my hand and shoulder. He grabbed a rag beside him and placed it on my head. The cool liquid soothed my pounding and rushing mind. "No one's here to hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you ever again."

My eyes suddenly became heavy again, and I shut them as sleep took me over once more.

"_A great evil has overcome our world. The Fire Nation has destroyed our village, killed our loved ones, and tried to crush our spirits. They will not crush us though. We are strong, and we will get through this together! We will fight with one another against these savage men, and bring peace back to these times. The Avatar is not here to protect this world, so we must do so in his place. I call on all the men who wish to fight beside me! Gather up your arms, and together we will take down these monsters!"_

_The tribe all burst with triumphant calls as men stood to join Hakoda's elite force of Water Tribe Warriors. Sokka who was twelve, stood confidently as he stepped forward to join the warriors. Katara, who was ten, shook her head in disbelief at her brother's stubborn action. I stood beside her, my arm in a sling as I watched the warriors prepare for their battle that would turn to years at sea._

_We were gathered in the center of our village, a large fire built to light up the area around us. It was night, and the moon and stars shined above. Father was at the head of the tribe, and he held a guarded expression as he painted symbols on each man's face that stepped forward, thanking them for their volunteer. _

_The Fire Nation had come to our village three weeks ago. The monsters had burned down our tents, killed half the men of our tribe, and had killed my mother as well. Shutting my eyes tightly, I could remember my mother's death. I'd seen her die right in front of my very eyes. She died, and I could do nothing to save her._

_My arm ached as I remembered the fire that had bit into my skin. My burns were nothing compared to my mother though. Her whole body was encased in flames. Her whole body was destroyed right in front of me, and I could do nothing to save her._

"_Kaya!" Gran-Gran suddenly said, and I turned to see the kind old woman looking at me with disapproval. "You were supposed to stay in the tent. Your arm may get infected out here." _

"_I wanted to hear father's speech," I said softly, hanging my head ashamed._

_Gran-Gran placed a motherly hand on my shoulder, saying, "Well you heard it. Now let's get inside before you get sick. Katara! Come too! And where is your brother? Go fetch him and bring him with you!"_

_Katara ran off to go get Sokka, while Gran-Gran walked me away from the tribe back to our tent. The tent was repaired after it had been destroyed three weeks ago, but you could still see marks where fire had burned into it._

"_It's all my fault," I whispered to no one but myself. "I could've saved her."_

_Gran-Gran stopped walking and with surprising speed turned so she was suddenly gripping my shoulders firmly. "Listen to me young lady… You will never say those words again, nor think that way! Your mother died to protect both you and your sister. Her death was not your fault, and it will never be your fault. I do not want you blaming yourself!"_

"_But I was there!" I cried. Tears poured down my cheeks. "I was there and I could've stopped them! I should've taken her place! I'm so weak! I'm so useless!" _

_My Gran-Gran was shocked by my words, and then she narrowed her eyes even more at me. "Kaya! That is enough! I will not have you speaking like this! Your mother would not like these words coming out of your mouth either. There is nothing any of us could've done. You're lucky the Fire Nation didn't kill you. You're lucky all they did was burn you! Stop speaking as if your life means nothing!"_

_Immediately I sobbed and my Gran-Gran sighed. Pulling me into her arms, she said softly, "You always place the blame on yourself… Nothing is your fault, my sweet princess."_

"_Nothing is your fault…"_

"Just go Sokka," a voice said as I suddenly returned back to the present. Opening my eyes weakly, I saw through blurry vision Sokka at the mouth of the cave looking uncertain. The sun was out showing it was still some time in the day. My sister was trying to shove Sokka along, but he wouldn't budge.

"I don't want to leave her like this," Sokka said.

Katara scowled, placing her hands on her hips. "She'll be fine. Her fever's already going down. You need to focus more on your sword training with Master Piandao. Amber will feel guilty if you don't go."

"Okay… But if anything happens-"

"She'll be fine…"

My eyes closed again and I fell back into my dreams.

"_Zuko! I've been looking everywhere for you," Mai's voice suddenly said, and I saw her present day self, walk over to my brother who was hunched over the balcony where he and I had once stood watching the dragon in the sky. Mai was wearing a fine long red dress that fit her figure nicely, and her long sleeves hung as she lifted her hand and placed it on my brothers back. It was night and the moon was the only thing lighting the air around Zuko and Mai._

_My brother was wearing dark red Fire Nation robes, and his brown hair messily hung down as he stared out past the walls surrounding the palace courtyard. His eyes almost seemed to trail to the ocean in the distance._

"_Ty Lee said she saw you come out here… She said you looked like you were in pain," Mai said._

_My brother sighed heavily, and I saw him stand straight and step away from Mai who looked worried. "I'm fine," Zuko whispered, but his voice broke and I could tell he was lying._

"_It's Amber… isn't it?" Mai asked._

_Zuko ran a hand through his hair and then turned to face Mai. When I saw his face fully, I was shocked. His eyes had dark circles under them showing he hadn't slept in weeks. His face was pale and his gold eyes were full of nothing but pain. He also looked like he'd been crying. He dropped his gaze from Mai, and hung his head in defeat._

"_It's all my fault… I could've saved her," he whispered._

_My eyes widened as Zuko spoke the exact same words I'd spoken a long time ago to my Gran-Gran about my mother's death._

"_What could you have done? From what Azula said, Amber ran into the crossfire. She died along with the avatar from her own choice. You wouldn't have been able to stop her."_

_Zuko grabbed his hair as if to help ease his agony. "You're wrong… If I had just chosen the right path, then Amber would still be alive. My little sister would still be alive and well. I betrayed her… I burned her and chose honor over family. She was so hurt… You should've seen the hurt in her eyes Mai… I've never seen my sister look at me that way before."_

"_Your sister may have been hurt at the time Zuko, but I'm sure she forgives you," Mai said, reaching to place a hand on my brother's shoulder._

_Zuko recoiled from her touch and Mai looked surprised. "No! How can she forgive me Mai? She's dead! She's dead, and the last memory she has of me is my betrayal." Zuko broke into hard sobs, and I watched with agony as he fell to the floor on his knees clutching his head with sorrow._

_Immediately I rushed forward, my dream self reaching out to touch his shoulder and let him know I was okay. "Zuko! I'm right here! I do forgive you! Please don't cry!" I reached forward to grab his hand from his hair, but my hand went right through him as if I were a ghost._

"_Stop! You're not at fault here!" Mai said, falling beside my brother and wrapping her arms around his shaking form. "Blaming yourself like this isn't going to bring Amber back."_

"_Zuko! Please stop crying! I'm right here!" I shouted, reaching to grab my brother by the shoulder. My hand went straight through again. _

"_Why do I lose everything I love?" Zuko whispered. "My mom's dead because she protected me from father. My uncle's in prison because I turned my back on him. My little sister is dead, because I chose honor of her. Why do I destroy everything I have?"_

"_Zuko! Stop!" I cried, on my knees now as I too felt great sadness toward my brothers suffering. "You haven't destroyed anything. I'm alive! I'm alive, Zuko!"_

_Mai had tears falling down her own cheeks. "You don't Zuko… You didn't destroy Amber, Azula did."_

"_No… We both did. We were her family, and we turned our back on her. I turned my back on her… I don't deserve to be happy. I don't deserve to be here… I'd give this all up if I could just see her face again."_

"_Zuko! I'm right here!" This time I knelt beside Mai so I was level with Zuko's eyes. Reaching my hand forward, I placed my hand on his shoulder crying, "I'm alive! I'm alive!" My hand just went through him again, since I wasn't really there._

_My brother made no reaction to me, and suddenly my surroundings became hazy as I lost my dream._

Waking up, I groaned as I felt my head split into pain. What happened?

"She's awake!" Someone cried.

"Feel her forehead. See if her fevers gone down," another voice said.

A hand pressed on my forehead, and I slowly opened my eyes to see who it belonged to. "We're good… She's fine," someone said.

"About time… Princess, you had us worried."

My senses suddenly came back to me, and I looked around with surprise. Kale was on his knees beside me, his hand pressed against my forehead. He looked relieved to see I was okay. Toph stood in the cave, and I saw her smile glad to see I was finally awake. Katara was on the other side of me, and I saw she too was elated to see me awake. Aang stood behind her, looking down at me with a sigh.

"What happened?" I asked, pushing Kale's hand away from me and going to sit up. It was as I sat up that my head rushed and I slumped back. Kale caught me placing his arm around my back to support me.

"Don't move so fast," Katara said. "You've had a high fever for the last twenty-four hours."

"A fever?" I asked, then thought back. Most of what had happened was a blur, but I could remember bits and pieces. Kale carrying me in the cave… Katara's healing water… The tea… The nightmare… The dream of Gran-Gran… The dream of Zuko…

Groaning, I sat up on my own and held my pulsing head in my hands. "I feel like I was run over by Appa." My whole body was heavy and sore, and I realized my mouth was very dry and my voice sounded hoarse.

Kale chuckled, and with relief he hugged me to him. At first I was confused to why he was so happy, but I decided it didn't matter. Immediately I shut my eyes as Kale's embrace comforted me. When he pulled away, I was thankful to find Aang had a cup of water in his hand and he was holding it toward me.

Taking the cup, I thanked him and drank it down happy to quench my thirst. When I was done, I hung my head and stared down at the cup. "Sorry for worrying everyone."

"There's nothing to be sorry for. You got sick. Your body may be stronger but that doesn't mean you're a hundred percent okay, Amber. You were struck by lightning in the heart. You may not be back to your full strength for a few more weeks," Katara said. "You overdid it the other day, and your body was letting you know that."

"I feel so useless though," I muttered. "All I ever do is cause you guys worry… All I ever seem to do is get in everyone's way."

Zhao's words came back to me. _"You're so pathetic! Your father say's you have to die before you ruin his plans, but I honestly don't see what you could possibly do. You're a weak, good for nothing, little freak, who can't even fire bend when told to."_

Shutting my eyes tightly, I tried to push his words back. He was right though. What could I possibly do to stop my father? If I couldn't even use fire bending without getting sick, how was I supposed to fight my dad and win?

"Amber… If you hadn't got in my way back in Ba Sing Sei, then I'd be dead," Aang said.

"Yeah… And we're family. We're supposed to worry about each other," Katara spoke up.

Toph added, "If you don't want us to worry then stop acting like your invincible all the time. You don't have to fight in every battle, Amber." That's the first time I'd heard Toph say my actual name in a long time.

Looking at my family with surprise, I smiled a bit at what they all said, comforted by their kindness.

Kale spoke last. "You're not useless… You saved that village two days ago, and other villages in the past. You risked your life to save Aang. You helped mend your uncle back to health after he was shot by lightning. You took down Zhao back at the North Pole. You've done so much for this world, Amber… You've shown this world that not all fire benders are evil."

I felt grateful for their words. They all were definitely making me feel better. "Thanks guys… That means a lot."

A few hours passed, and I managed to get to my feet and walk around trying to get my strength back. Sokka came back to the cave when the sun outside was starting to set, and he looked utterly relieved to see I was awake and back to what strength I had. After he hugged me with relief, I asked him how his training with Master Piandao was going.

Sokka beamed. "Great! Master Piandao is an amazing teacher!"

I smiled glad to see Sokka was happy.

It was two days after my fever had broken, that Sokka asked us to help him make a sword. We were all a bit puzzled by what he was asking, but at the same time we were glad he wanted our help. In the end we all went with Sokka to help him prepare his sword. Toph used her earth bending to roll the meteor up a large hill toward a giant stone building that almost seemed castle like. It had red roofs with gold trim making it Fire Nation. The building was built on a cliff, and there was a giant stone wall going around it.

Walking up to the large wooden doors that led into the massive yard, the wooden doors swung open and a man came into view. This man was clearly Fire Nation, his face rough like many of the soldiers I'd met in the past. He did not have pale skin though, which surprised me. I assumed his lack of pale skin was because he was outside a lot. He was older, maybe in his fifties. He had black hair in a topknot, a thin black beard around his mouth, and gray eyes. He wore dark red fire nation clothing that looked loose and made for flexibility.

"Who's this?" he asked Sokka, looking at the rest of us with surprise and curiosity. When he looked over at me, I saw something flash through his eyes. It was almost like recognition. Did he know who I was?

"Oh, these are my friends. Just other good Fire Nation folks," Sokka said, his voice breaking a bit at his lie. The man bowed to us in acknowledgement. Sokka continued. "Do you think we can make a sword out of a meteorite?"

The man stared at the giant black space matter with amazement, then surprise, then pleasure. He stepped up to the rock and placed his hand on it testing the hard material. He looked serious as he said, "We'll make a sword unlike any other in the world."

We followed the man then through the large gate, Sokka and Kale managing to roll the meteorite along. We walked around the giant area's massive yard, and it was then I noticed how huge the building master Piandao lived in actually was. It stretched almost fifty feet tall, probably had four floors, and was a massive fortress.

We reached a separate stone building from the main building, and we were told to stay outside as Sokka, Piandao, and some man who had almost a baboon face like Zhao, went in to work on the sword. It seemed like we sat outside the forgery place for hours, and we heard the sound of clinking and hissing as Sokka molded his sword with his own strength.

As we waited, my mind started to wander.

"_I don't deserve to be happy. I don't deserve to be here… I'd give this all up if I could just see her face again."_

Seeing Zuko so heartbroken and filled with regret made me heartbroken myself. My brother regretted betraying me. My brother was grieving over my death more than I would've wanted him to if I really were dead. I didn't want him blaming himself. I didn't want him thinking that my "death" was his fault.

I wanted Zuko to be happy…

Then another thought suddenly hit me.

How was it that I could see Zuko and Mai? That dream was not a memory, so did I somehow spirit travel. Did my spirit leave my human body on its own free will so I could see my brother?

The thought actually terrified me.

"You okay?" Kale suddenly asked, and I jumped a bit when I heard his voice. Looking over at him with question from where I saw on the stone step, I saw he was seated beside me and staring at me with worry. "How are you feeling? You look kind of pale again." He reached forward to touch my forehead but I stopped him.

"I don't have a fever, Kale," I promised, lowering both his hand and my own.

Aang, who sat on the step below me, looked over and asked, "Anything you want to talk about? You had some crazy nightmares the other day."

Shaking my head, I said softly, "No… I'm fine."

Toph- who sat beside Katara on the step above Kale and I- muttered, "Liar." I shot her a glare though I knew she couldn't see.

Silence fell over us again, and the sounds of Sokka's hard work on his sword came to a stop. We heard footsteps approach a moment later, and we all got to our feet turning around to see Sokka, Piandao, and the baboon faced man emerge from the forgery.

Sokka beamed as he held a black smooth very sharp looking sword in his hand. The blade was made out of molded and sharpened meteorite, and the handle had gold trim on it to add color. We were led back to the front of Master Piandao's giant fortress, and the man took the sword from Sokka so he could officially present it to him. We all stood behind the man as Sokka kneeled in front of him.

"Sokka, when you first arrived, you were so unsure. You even seemed down on yourself. But I saw something in you right away. I saw a heart as strong as a lion turtle, and twice as big. And as we trained, it wasn't your skills that impressed me… No, it certainly wasn't your skills. You showed something beyond that. Creativity, versatility, intelligence... these are the traits that define a great swordsman. And these are the traits that define you." The man kneeled then in front of Sokka and handed the sword to him pleased at his student's progress. "You told me you didn't know if you were worthy, but I believe that you are more worthy than any man I have ever trained."

At first I expected Sokka would beam at these compliments. I expected my brother would be elated that his master was so proud of him. He showed no sign of that though. Instead, he rested the sword on his knees as if it was heavy, and he hung his head in shame.

"I'm sorry, Master. You're wrong. I am not worthy. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not from the Fire Nation. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe." Sokka's words made us all gawk. "I lied so that I could learn swordsmanship from you. I'm sorry."

Piandao turned away enough so I could see him frown. "I'm sorry too," the man softly said.

As fast as lightning, the man drew his own sword from his waist and lashed it at Sokka. My brother was fast, his own sword meeting the masters and blocking his attack sending sparks. We all watched with both terror and amazement.

Katara, and Aang took a few steps forward as if to intervene, but Sokka shook his head. "No… This is my fight, alone."

The two swordsmen broke apart and then began to square off in the large yard we were in. The baboon man told us all to step back and we found ourselves standing on the top of the steps that led to the main buildings door. When I saw the door I was surprised. There was a white lotus painted on the wood. My eyes widened as I recognized the symbol.

The white lotus…

The sound of swords crashing into each other brought my attention back, and I turned my eyes over to Sokka and Piandao, horrified when I saw they were fighting roughly. This was not training, nor was Piandao going easy on Sokka. He looked like he was actually trying to slice my brother in two. Sokka dodged Piandao's attacks well though, blocked his stabs with agility and balance, and swiftly escaped the blade of his opponent. He looked like he was filled with nothing but determination as he fought the man who looked determined as well.

As the two men fought, Kale said beside me, "I know who I'm getting to teach me sword fighting. Sokka is a master."

I knew what Kale was saying. Sokka was amazing. He was unlike any fighter I'd ever seen. It seemed like the sword and him were one, and he showed no sign of doubt in himself.

Then something terrifying happened. Sokka's sword flew from his grasp and landed about eight feet away. Piandao smashed his arm into Sokka sending my brother flying onto his back. Then the man pointed his sword at Sokka's head and we all rushed down the steps ready to stop the fight.

He pulled the sword away though, causing us all to come to a halt in surprise. Then he said with sincerity, "Excellent work Sokka."

We were all confused now.

The man wasn't trying to kill my brother? It looked like it from the distance…

The man sheathed his sword, and then glanced back at us, his wise eyes holding laughter in them. He smiled at us, then said to Aang, "I think I'm a little old to be fighting the avatar."

We were all shocked.

"How did you know?" Aang asked, bewildered. Sokka was to his feet now, and the baboon man who was named Fat, brought Piandao a cloth and a cup of tea.

"Oh, I've been around a while. You pick things up." He used the cloth to wipe the dirt from his face, and then took the cup with gratefulness. We were all still staring at him with amazement. "Of course, I knew from the beginning that Sokka was Water Tribe. You might want to think of a better Fire Nation cover name. Try "Lee." There's a million "Lees"."

I winced at the name, my thoughts clouding with my brother Zuko again. I immediately tried to push them away.

My sister spoke for the first time, distracting my thoughts which I was grateful. "But why would you agree to train someone from the Water Tribe?"

The man smiled kindly at my sister, handing his cup and cloth back to Fat. "The way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation. Knowledge of the arts belongs to us all." He walked over to Sokka's sword now and picked it up from the ground. Walking back over to Sokka, he handed it to him and Sokka took it with a smile. "Sokka, you must continue your training on your own. If you stay on this path, I know that one day you will become an even greater master than I am."

Sokka beamed at his master's words. Fat brought over a leather sheath to Sokka now, and Sokka placed his sword inside. Sokka bowed to his master, thanked him for his teaching, and then gestured for us all to head out. As we started to leave the place, Piandao stopped us.

"Oh, and Amber…" Piandao began. Looking back at him, I was surprised he'd spoken to me. The others had stopped too, curious to know why the man was speaking to me, and amazed he knew who I was. "We're all glad to know you're alive."

His words took me off guard for a moment.

We're?

My eyes widened. I knew where I'd seen the white lotus symbol now. The secret society my uncle was a part of. The men who managed to get us our passports and jobs in the city. The White Lotus…

Master Piandao was a part of the same secret club my uncle was a part of.

Smiling, I turned fully to him and bowed. "Thanks," I said, and I truly meant it. Then standing straight, I frowned with worry as I asked, "Is he okay?"

Master Piandao knew exactly who I was talking about. His eyes softened when he heard the pain in my voice. "He is the strongest and wisest out of all of us. You do not need to worry about him." Master Piandao turned then and walked away from us. I felt relieved knowing my uncle was okay.

When we left the place finally, there was an awkward silence as everyone tried to contemplate what had occurred. Fat stopped us on the way out, handing Sokka a Pai Sho tile with a white lotus on it. My family looked at it puzzled, and I smiled knowing now what it symbolized.

When we got back to the cave finally, where we'd left Appa and Momo, I was interrogated.

"What was that back there?" Katara asked.

"He knew who you were!" Aang exclaimed.

"Did you two know each other?" Sokka asked.

"That was weird," Toph muttered.

"Guys! Give her some air," Kale snapped.

Everyone was crowding me and making me back away anxiously. It was Kale who stepped in between to try and free me from the interrogation. "Master Piandao knew who Aang was, so of course he knew who Amber was."

"But Amber…"

I cut Aang off, saying softly, "He knows my uncle… I was just asking him if Iroh was okay."

The group looked at me in surprise.

"How does he know your uncle?" Sokka asked.

Shrugging, I answered, "The world's a small place after all." Then I turned and left the group to ponder over that. As I walked away, I noticed something was really off. Stopping dead in my tracks, I felt my heart rate increase as I realized what felt different.

The connection between Huo and I… The connection was gone. When Huo and I were connected, I knew it because I felt like my spirit was being weighed down. Now, I felt light, like my spirit was free.

My thoughts went back to the dream I'd had about Zuko. Did I travel by spirit to see my brother? Was I able to control my own spirit now?

Looking down at my hand, I created fire in my palm and a purple flame tickled at my skin. This flame was different from the others I'd created in the past though. This flame felt so warm and so light. It felt like it was a part of me, and only me. It was my flame… my very own flame.

Had I somehow broken the connection from Huo?

"Amber?" Kale asked, and I jumped at his voice. Turning, I looked over at the others to see they had all noticed my abrupt stop and looked ten times more worried.

Stopping my flame, I felt tears fill my eyes as my spirit burned inside me with freedom. Was it true? Had I somehow broke the connection?

"_You have become a powerful spirit Amber… too powerful for Huo to control… You yourself broke the connection," _Roku answered.

_What! How! _I cried in my head.

"_Huo granted your spirit life Amber, but now your spirit has become its own." _Roku's words still confused me. He tried to help in a way my uncle would've._ "Huo was the tree, and you were the acorn. You have fallen from him and become your own tree."_

Though I thought it was kind of funny Roku was comparing Huo and I to a tree, I let my laughter sink beneath my shock.

"Amber… What's wrong?" Kale suddenly asked, and I was surprised when he grabbed my shoulders shaking me a bit to get some answers.

"I'm free," I whispered.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you guys liked this chapter. Just to show you guys how sorry I am this took so long, I'm posting the next chapter too. **


	6. Battles won

"So let me get this straight," my sister Katara began, her blue eyes looking as confused as they were when I first started speaking. We were all on Appa's saddle, flying above the clouds in the sky. The sun was beating down on us, but we ignored the heat and focused more on our conversation.

We'd spent one more night in the cave, and in the morning we set off to head on toward the meeting place for the invasion. After Roku had spoken to me yesterday, I'd kind of been quiet in thought all through the night and morning. My family was worried about me, but they could tell I didn't really want to talk yet and so they left it alone. When we got on Appa's saddle later that morning, and the giant flying-bison took off in the sky, I finally told them what was going. Now Katara was trying to understand.

"You're saying that the connection between you and Huo is completely gone?"

Nodding, I pulled my knees closer to my chest. "Roku told me that my spirit is now so powerful, that it no longer needs to be connected to Huo. He said that my spirit has become my own. Huo has no more control over me."

"And you can speak to Roku still because of the bracelet?" Sokka asked, sitting beside Katara with even more confusion. All this spirit stuff was probably too much for everyone to gather.

Nodding again, I sighed resting my chin on my knees. "I promise you guys, I'm as confused over this as everyone else is." Kale, who sat beside me, ran a hand through my hair to comfort me. I smiled a bit at the gesture.

Aang now added in, from where he sat holding Appa's reins to guide us through the air, "It's not really that confusing."

We all looked at him with question.

He released the reins and used his air bending to jump from Appa's head and land on the saddle with us. Plopping down beside Toph, who was listening to what was happening, Aang continued.

"It's all pretty simple when you think about it. When you were born, Amber, Huo granted you're human body life by placing some of his spirit in you. You and Huo may have been connected before, but now you're starting to get a hold of your own spirit. You were so determined to break the connection that your spiritual half actually did. I think that fever you had the other day was your spirit finally tearing from Huo."

Now I was bewildered. "If my spirit was breaking from Huo, I think I would've felt it!"

"You probably did feel it, but the strain was too much on your body that you just don't remember. When you woke up from your fever you were really out of it," Aang said. "You said the only things you really recall were your dream of Zhao, the water tribe, and going to see Zuko. You had some other dreams though, Amber. We had to wake you up a few times from some pretty scary nightmares you were having."

"I don't remember any of them," I whispered, only recalling the three I could remember.

Aang continued. "And that's because your human body could only handle so much. When your spirit finally broke from Huo, that's when you freely traveled in spirit to see Zuko. You woke up after that because your body was finally at peace. The battle inside you was over."

"I still find it strange," I said. "Why could I suddenly break the connection when I couldn't do it before?"

"Your spirit has become strong. I can see it. I think your spirit became stronger than even Huo's, and he could no longer keep a hold on you," Aang said.

Now I smiled. "So then it's true… I really am free. The connections been broken…"

Aang smiled back. "See… You didn't even need the avatar's help."

His words comforted me as I realized what he was saying. I'd broken the connection myself… I was stronger than Huo now…

I was free.

**Third Person POV**

Huo growled, his piercing gold eyes burning with fire as he gripped his fists tightly. He was furious at what that girl had done. He felt the connection break as soon as she did it. It was almost like that girl had taken a sword and sliced it through the air, cutting the strings that Huo had tied tightly around her. Her spirit had become too powerful. Huo had begun to sense this when the girl left the spirit world a while ago. He should've kept her with him. He shouldn't have let her go.

Slamming his fist on the arm of his flaming throne, the fire increased around him as he tried to gather his thoughts. He could no longer feel that girl's spirit, and he could no longer sense where her spirit was. He had to get to the human world. He had to face the girl and try to regain control. All his work would be for nothing if he didn't.

He would not allow that girl to get away from him.

"Why the sour look, Huo?" Roku asked suddenly. The wise old spirit was stepping through the wall of fire that shot up at the entrance to Huo's large throne room. "Don't tell me your upset?"

Roku's eyes held delight as he saw the enraged spirit before him. He knew his great- granddaughter's spirit had broken from Huo. He knew that Amber was finally free. He was proud of her for being so strong and successful.

"Don't look so surprised, Roku," Huo spat sarcastically. He stood, fire spewing from his feet and hands. This fire was strong and fierce, showing his anger. "I know you had something to do with this!"

Roku smiled now, calmly saying, "Sorry to disappoint you, but this was all Amber."

Huo growled. "How did that girl escape me?!"

"She's more powerful than you, Huo. She's always been more powerful than you."

The spirit of fire scowled, and then stomped past Roku toward the wall of fire. "I'm going to the human world," he hissed.

He stormed through the wall of fire and disappeared behind the smoldering flames. Roku watched him go with leveled eyes. When Huo was gone, Roku shut his eyes to try and speak to Amber.

"_You might have company very soon, Amber."_

**Amber POV**

My heart jumped a bit when Roku suddenly spoke to me. We'd landed about an hour ago after a long day of flying. Everyone was beginning to prepare for much needed sleep. Katara and Kale prepared some soup and tea, while Toph went to go get some kindle for the fire. Sokka was passing down sleeping bags to me from Appa's saddle, and Aang was patting Appa thanking him for his hard work. Momo was already curled up asleep beside Appa.

When Sokka passed down another sleeping bag, I wasn't paying attention this time having heard Roku speak to me. The sleeping bag hit me on the head and I stumbled a bit from the heavy load.

"I thought you were ready?!" Sokka said. "You okay?"

Rubbing my head, which was pulsing a bit in pain, I leaned down and picked up the sleeping bag that had rolled beside my feet. Looking up at Sokka, who was above me watching with concern, I gave him a thumb's up. "All good…. Just a little distracted."

Sokka rolled his eyes and began to climb down the saddle.

"_What do you mean I might have company?" _I asked Roku now, hugging the sleeping bag to me with a really bad feeling.

"_Huo isn't happy," _Roku answered calmly.

"_He's coming to the human world?" _I asked.

"_Yes… Be on guard."_

Something grabbed my shoulder suddenly, and I jumped looking up at my brother who looked even more concerned than before. "What's going on with you?"

Pulling from Sokka's hold, I turned away trying to mask the fear I felt inside. "Nothing… I'm just tired." Walking away, I felt my heart rate increase as I stepped to the other side of the cave to lay out the sleeping bag.

Huo was coming to the human world? He's mad at me for breaking the connection? What if he tries to hurt me? What if he tries to destroy me? What if he tries to capture my spirit again?

I just got my freedom. I wasn't ready to lose it.

That night as we crowded around the fire I'd managed to make, I listened to the conversation around me but was out of it. I assumed Huo would get to the human world through a portal or something. He'd come to the human world before to give his spiritual energy to me before I was born, so I assumed he could do it again. The thought kind of scared me. If Huo came here, then I feared he'd be too powerful for me to fight against. My chest was still injured from the lightening over a month ago, and last time I strained my body too much I had a fever. What if my human body wasn't strong enough to survive a fight against Huo?

Then it hit me… Maybe I would have to fight him in spirit?

"Amber… You okay?" Kale suddenly asked, and I jumped a bit when I saw him kneeling in front of me. His hand cupped my cheek and I saw him deeply worried.

As fake as I could, I smiled to try and reassure him I was okay. "Yeah… Just tired."

Kale looked like he was going to argue. Grabbing his hand, I held it to my cheek a little longer enjoying his warm familiar touch. Staring at him intently, I promised, "I'll be fine."

Kale could tell I was still hiding something but he didn't try to force anything out of me. That night as everyone settled and went to sleep, I lied down for a few moments having a really bad feeling. When I was sure everyone was asleep, I crawled off my sleeping bag and made my way outside of the dark cave we were in. There was a half-moon in the sky, giving off some light to the dark rocky area I was at. Walking down the rocky path barefoot, I made my way to the large lake we were near. The water lapped against the rocks and the moon reflected in the fresh liquid. A cold breeze hit me, and shivers raced up and down my spine.

"It's okay Amber… It's okay," I tried to reassure myself, but I didn't believe my own words.

Truth was, I was terrified of Huo. I wasn't ready to face him. How long would it take him to reach the human world? How long did I have to prepare?

A splash sounded in the water nearby, and I jumped turning sharply toward the sound, my heart pounding rapidly. To my relief, it was just a dark bird taking off from the water and flying off into the sky. Taking in a hard breath, I tried to calm down.

Kneeling down beside the water, I reached my hand forward and pulled some water up to splash my face and try to wipe the worries away. My heart calmed and I felt my breathing return to normal.

There was nothing to worry about? Huo wasn't going to come? If he did that would just show how crazy and controlling the spirit really was.

"There's nothing to worry about… Huo's not coming…" I reassured myself, standing back up and looking up at the moon to try and stay calm.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that!"

Immediately I gasped, my eyes widening as I sharply turned and looked at the spirit himself. Huo glowed in front of me, his gold eyes almost turning a reddish orange like the fire that was blazing inside him and around his body. His eyes were narrowed, his lips pressed firmly together, and if looks could kill I would've surely died again. The dark red robe he wore was also on fire as anger coursed through him.

"Huo…" I whispered, my blood running cold. My voice only angered him more.

"So this is how you repay me," he hissed. "After everything I've done for you. I gave you life… I gave you power… I let you return to the human world… You are truly an ungrateful child!"

Backing away, I gasped when my foot hit the water of the lake. Stepping forward again, I tried to keep calm and not show fear. Staring at Huo with determination, I said, "Ungrateful?! I didn't ask for you to give me life! I didn't ask for you to give me this power! I'm not at fault here!"

Huo scowled, walking toward me. He was only a good six yards away, and I looked around wildly for an escape. "You should be on your knees thanking me! Without me, you would've never been born!"

I got mad this time. Was he stupid? Did he forget I thanked him back in the spirit world? "I already thanked you for that! I'm not doing it again!"

The enraged spirit was only a few feet from me now. "How did you escape me?! How did you break the connection? One minute I have you in my grasp, and the next you're gone!"

I smiled, suddenly filling with confidence. "One thing you should know about me, Huo… I'm good at disappearing from people's lives."

"We'll see about that! You're not escaping me! Your spirit may be your own now, but I'm going to yank it back to the spirit world by force!"

"You know what your problem is," I began, tightening my fist ready to fight. "You're just like my father! All you care about is controlling others."

Huo growled, spitting venomously, "Don't you dare compare me to that man who abuses my gift to this world. If I had never given my fire to that Lion Turtle so long ago, this world wouldn't have fire bending!"

I was a bit confused about the lion turtle thing, but I didn't dwell on it too much.

"Oh… I get it now! You're mad because this world doesn't need you anymore. Now that I think of it, I don't even think this world ever mentions the spirit of fire. You hate this world because they stole your fire and kicked you to the curb. That's why you're so mad at me right now," I stopped for a second, just to allow my eyes to narrow. "You're mad because I stole your fire and don't need you anymore."

Huo growled, stomping forward and grabbing my human arm hard. His hand passed through, and I gasped when I felt him yank my spirit from my body. The feeling of his hand on my spirit was almost like a burning sensation. He yanked me forward, and I turned with terror to see my human body fall to the ground unconscious.

"Hey!" I cried, turning with fury toward the spirit who still had a hold of my glowing arm. "Let me go!"

Huo's grip tightened, his eyes determined as he pulled me toward him. "Not again," he hissed, and I could tell he wanted to lock me away forever. I wasn't sure if a spirit could truly be imprisoned, but I wasn't going to let Huo use me as a test trial.

Tightening my free hand, I punched my fist forward and a hard blast of purple flames shot at Huo sending him flying back from the force. His spirit hit the ground hard, and I winced when I saw him leave a trail of fire from where he slid.

"You'll regret that," Huo hissed, getting back to his feet and walking back toward me as if my hit hadn't even fazed him.

He stared hard at me, and as he did fire encircled me locking me in a sort of cage. The fire was like a wall, circling around me and blocking any escape. Immediately I gasped, staring through the hot red flames at Huo who was walking toward me. "You will not escape me!"

Shutting my eyes tightly, I really hoped I knew what I was doing. With determination, I rushed through the fire feeling the flames send a rush of warmth through my spirit as they touched me. The fire had no effect on me, and I smiled glad I hadn't burned to a crisp.

Though, I wasn't really sure if spirits could burn anyway. I wasn't going to let Huo use me as a test trial for that thought either.

Huo shot another stream of fire toward me, and I held my hands out stopping the hot red fire with my palms. The fire ended up parting around me, and I was relieved that it didn't hit me. Huo growled when he saw what I'd done, shouting, "I will not lose to you!"

We went into a full blown fight then, his fire shooting at me and my fire shooting at him. It came to the point where he was only a few inches away from me, and his hands held flamed daggers which he swung at me. He was outraged that I had broken the connection, and I had a feeling he wouldn't rest until I was under his control again or even dead.

Shooting another blast at him, I watched as he tried to block it but slid back a few feet. When the fire extinguished, he gritted his teeth and shot another blast of hot fire toward me.

"How long are we going to do this for?" I asked, jumping out of the way from another blast of fire directed toward me.

"As long as it takes for you to accept defeat!" Huo hissed.

He tightened his fist then and I gasped when I watched with horror as fire suddenly started to trail toward my unconscious human body. "Stop!" I cried, turning to Huo who gave me a malicious grin.

"Without your human body, you'll have no choice but to-"

"No!" I cried, shooting a harsh blast of purple fire his way. My fire smashed into him hard, throwing him back a good ten yards. Looking back, I sighed with relief to see the hot fire had vanished from near my human body as Huo lost concentration.

Turning back to Huo, I saw him glare daggers at me as he got back to his feet. "I've had it with you! I'm done playing nice! You just signed your death wish girl!" His whole body suddenly encased with fire, as if he were a flame himself. His eyes glowed a bright glowing reddish orange as he stalked toward me in his monstrous fire form. His man like appearance was gone, and in his place was fire that had the shape of a human.

"I am the spirit of fire! There can't be two!" he growled, and his voice caused fire to spew from his flaming mouth.

Honestly, I was beyond terrified. This was no longer the young looking spirit who held the appearance of a twenty year old man. This spirit was a full blown fire monster now, and he looked ready to kill me.

He rushed at me, and I gasped as he flew toward me like a flame being thrown through the air. His spirit smashed hard into me, and I screamed as I actually felt my spirit burn from his touch. He slammed me hard on the ground, and I winced as fire burned into my spirit. I didn't think you could actually feel anything through your spirit alone, but Huo's hold on me burned worse than Zhao's inflictions. He grabbed my throat, his flame of a hand causing me to scream even more from the smoldering heat I felt. My vision blurred as I felt him try to kill my spirit.

"Not so strong now, are you?" the fire from Huo's mouth hit my face, and I gasped at the burning pain.

No… No… I was not ready to die. I assumed if my spirit died, I would cease to exist. I was not going to let that happen.

Somehow, I managed to reach my hand up and I grabbed Huo's blazing face with my hand. His eyes widened as I concentrated on the fire that consumed his body.

Stop! Stop! Stop!

The fire began to die each time I shouted in my head.

A new determination filled within me._ "Stop… this is not what fire is used for… This is not supposed to be the true meaning of fire… Fire is not destruction… Fire is not death… Fire is life! You do not deserve to control such a beautiful gift as this!" _my voice came out in almost an echo, and I felt strong as I controlled the fire inside Huo. I felt the flames, I felt his spirit, and I felt the power flowing inside him. _"You do not deserve to be the spirit of fire!" _

Huo screamed in agony as I extinguished the fire inside him. As I stopped the flames coursing through his body, I began to feel his power fade from inside him. As his power faded, I felt my own grow. The flames around Huo receded, his appearance of a man returning and the monstrous form he'd taken on was leaving. As he came back to being the red haired, golden eyed spirit I didn't utterly fear, I almost sighed with relief.

Shoving him off of me, I didn't have to do much because he was in shock. He stood and backed away, his eyes wide as he stared at me with horror.

Getting back to my own feet, I finally relaxed and felt at ease, glad that Huo hadn't ended my spirit. When I looked back at Huo, I saw him looking at his hands with terror. "No… What have you done… My fire… It's gone!" He looked up at me with terror.

"You've lost Huo… Amber has won." Huo and I jumped and turned to Roku in surprise. He was standing a few yards away, right beside my unconscious but not burnt human form, and I saw he was pleased with what had just occurred. "Well done Amber… You put up an amazing fight. I'm proud."

Looking a bit puzzled, I went to ask him something but Huo cut me off.

"What did you do to me!" he shouted, and I saw him clutching his hair with terror.

Looking away from Roku now, I frowned almost feeling bad for the spirit in front of me. He looked upset, his spirit shaking as he realized his control was gone.

"I took your fire bending away," I said calmly, as if knowing the answer right away. "You and Roku once told me that my mission is to show the world what the true meaning of fire is, and I am going to do just that. You have been abusing your fire, Huo. You have been using it to control me, which is definitely not what fire truly is designed for. You no longer deserve to hold such a power."

"You can't just steal away my fire! Without it I'm just a… I'm just…"

"A spirit," I stated.

Huo looked at me with fury again. "Give it back!" he ordered.

Roku sighed. "It's no longer yours Huo. Your days of tormenting Amber are over. Just give up."

"No!" Huo shouted, falling on his knees and clutching his hair. "Why? Why! I was in control! I was fire! It's gone! My power is gone!" He looked like he was losing it, his spirit slowly dying on the inside as he realized he was just a spirit now. He had no control over fire. He had no more control over me. He was falling apart.

Walking over to him, I knelt in front of him kind of feeling bad. "Huo… I'm sorry…" I placed my hand on his tense shoulder. "I wish it didn't have to be this way."

Huo scowled, shoving me away. I stood and backed away with sadness. Huo was controlling, yes, but he had good intentions at times. Even though he had just tried to kill me, I felt bad for being the cause of all his pain.

Getting to his feet, he hissed, "I'm done with this world. I'm done with you filthy humans! You all can rot! I hope you end up destroying this world! That power you possess now will be too powerful for you!"

Roku suddenly placed a hand on my shoulder. "You're wrong about that… Amber is more powerful than you'll ever be. You see Huo, your missing one thing that Amber has…" Huo looked at Roku with narrowed eyes as he continued. "… You're missing a heart."

Huo snarled, turned on his heel, and stormed off spitting, "Who needs a stupid heart!" His spirit disappeared as he walked farther away, and immediately I felt pure relief inside me.

Roku still had a hand on my shoulder, and I heard him say, "Don't worry about him. His pride has been shot down. He'll get over it in the next three hundred years."

Looking back at Roku, I smiled a bit at what he said. Turning fully, I threw my arms around my great-grandfathers neck relieved to finally be free. Roku wrapped his arms around me, saying, "I am so proud of you."

"How did I do it though?" I asked, pulling away from him. "Was I really that much stronger than Huo?"

"That burning hope inside you was the key, Amber. That's another thing Huo was without. You were more powerful, because you were more determined to win," Roku said. "You are stronger than Huo, and now you're stronger than even me."

Roku began to walk off now, and as he did I stopped him. "Hey Roku," I began.

He turned toward me with question.

"Thanks... for everything… I promise I'm going to help Aang and my family restore peace to this world at last."

Roku nodded. "You're the spirit of fire. If anyone can restore peace, then it's definitely you."

He disappeared then, and I smiled watching him go.

I was free…

Walking back to my body, which was still unconscious by the water, I managed to rest back inside and reconnect with the human world. My body was sore from the fall it had endured, but I ignored the pain as I stood back up and stared at my hands with a smile.

Free at last.

Lighting a flame in my palms, I watched with amazement as my fire turned into a vast array of colors now. There were reds, yellows, oranges, blues, purples, and so many other beautiful colors that drew me in. It felt so good to be back.

It felt so good to be free.

Somehow I made it back to the cave and back to my sleeping bag. It wasn't until I had started walking back to the cave that I realized how utterly exhausted I felt. When I got back, I tiptoed around everyone and inched my way back to my spot beside Katara. Landing on my sleeping bag, I didn't even curl up inside it as exhaustion took me over.

When I woke up in the morning it was because Sokka was shaking my shoulder saying, "Come on! Wakey wakey!"

Groaning, I opened my eyes and stared at my brother groggily. His eyes widened and he backed away with shock. His mouth was in an 'o' shape and his eyes looked amazed. Staring at him with confusion, I asked, "What's wrong?"

He didn't answer me, and instead rushed over to the others who were slowly packing up their own sleeping bags. Sokka was starting to really confuse me.

Getting up, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes trying to wake up. When I was a bit more awake, I ran a hand through my hair pulling at the tangles it had. When I got to my feet and looked at the others, they were all staring at me with amazement. Toph wasn't though, since she wasn't seeing what everyone else was seeing.

"Um… Amber," Katara began. "Not that I don't love it and all, but how did you do it? And why?"

Now I was taken aback by what my sister said. "Huh?" I asked, staring at her with even more confusion.

"Your hair!" Katara exclaimed, answering me.

Now I was really confused. Pulling a portion of hair in front of me, I saw my long black strands like I always did. There was something different though.

My own eyes widened now. Rushing over to Katara's bag lying against the wall of the cave, I rummaged inside for the mirror she'd bought during our time in the Earth Kingdom. Pulling the small circular mirror out, I looked at my reflection and my jaw dropped. My hair was still long and black, but there were fire red highlights going through it.

"My hair!" I cried.

The others watched me, surprised that I was surprised by my new hair color.

"So… You didn't do this?" Kale asked, and I could tell he was confused by my reaction.

Thinking back to everything that had happened last night, I wondered if maybe the new power coursing through me was the main cause for my new hairstyle. Now that I thought about it, something else felt different.

Pressing a hand to my chest, I felt no pain. I felt no discomfort. It felt perfectly fine.

My new strength had healed me!

"What's going on?" Sokka asked, suddenly back in front of me and grabbing my shoulders with burning question. "You've been acting strange since yesterday."

Kale now added in, "What happened to you?"

Blushing now, I said, "It's kind of a long story… Everyone might want to sit down for this."

They were all confused.

**Third Person POV**

"I'm so excited to spend the weekend on Ember Island. It's gonna be great to hang out on the beach and do nothing," Ty Lee exclaimed, bouncing up and down with excitement.

Zuko scowled, his fists clenching as he stared at the passing waters below. They were on a small fire nation vessel being pulled by a giant sea lion fish, and they were headed to Ember Island. It was a little later in the morning, so the sun was just creeping up to the middle of the sky. Zuko's father was sending them off on a vacation, but Zuko knew what it really was. His father just wanted them all out of the way for a few days.

Amber had been right. Ozai cared squat about his children.

"Doing nothing is a waste of time. We're being sent away on a forced vacation. I feel like a child," Zuko spat, clutching the railing of the ship with annoyance. He didn't want to go to Ember Island. He didn't want to remember things from his past. All he wanted to do was go back to the palace and hide away from the world like he'd been doing for the last month.

Azula let out an exasperated sigh and walked over to Zuko, who quickly turned away from her not really wanting her crap. He still blamed her immensely for Amber's death.

"Lighten up. So dad wants to meet with his advisors alone... without anyone else around. Don't take it personally."

"Doesn't your family have a house on Ember Island?" Ty Lee asked.

Azula nodded. "We used to come every summer when we were kids. We came a little less after Amber had first disappeared, but we still came."

At the name Amber everyone on the ship, except for Azula, winced. Zuko clenched his teeth and tightened his fists to keep from losing his emotions again. A soft gentle hand overlapped his own which was sitting on the ship railing. Zuko glanced over at Mai and saw her hold both pain and worry on her face.

"She'd want you to be happy… Try and enjoy yourself."

Zuko pulled from Mai's hand, crossed his arms, and looked out toward the seas horizon. "I don't deserve to be happy." Turning on his heel, he left the three girls on deck to go to the other side of the ship where he could be alone. They watched him go, and Azula frowned a bit.

"He'll get over it one day," she said, then turned back to look at the ocean.

Mai and Ty Lee shared a glance, and Mai shook her head knowing fully well Zuko would blame himself for the rest of his life.

**Amber POV**

We were all seated in a sort of circle, Momo seated on my lap as I pat his ears nonchalantly. The others in the circle looked amazed and at a loss for words at everything I'd just told them.

Aang was the first to speak after a long awkward silence. "So you're the spirit of fire now?"

Nodding, I held my head down a bit in sadness. "Yeah… Taking Huo's power was the only way to stop him. I feel bad for doing it, but he left me no choice."

"You feel bad? The guy tried to kill you!" Toph exclaimed. "You had every right to do what you did!"

Grimacing, I pictured the hate in Huo's eyes. He really had wanted me dead.

"Well look at the bright side to all of this," Kale suddenly broke in. "Amber's healed, Huo's out of our hair, and now we have the spirit of fire on our side to beat the Fire Nation. Add in the fact that everyone believes Aang and Amber our dead, and no one suspects were the enemy, and I say our lucks multiplying by the day."

"So optimistic," Katara said. "Great to have you in the group, Kale."

Smiling weakly, I said, "Yeah… I guess you're right, Kale."

Sokka stood from where he was seated beside me, saying, "Well now that we all know what's been going on in Amber's head, I say we hit the sky. We have a lot of ground to cover."

"Actually, if we keep flying straight there we should be there in three weeks. We're almost to the island," Kale said.

Sokka sighed. "Good. Then let's do just that."

After we packed up, we were flying again through the air. Scooting beside Kale, I leaned against him and he wrapped an arm around me. His hand brushed through my new highlights as I rested my head on his chest. Closing my eyes, I listened to his heart beat and smiled at his warmth.

Thank goodness I defeated Huo, because I couldn't imagine never being able to see Kale again.

Eventually we stopped for a lunch break and as we did Aang decided it would be fun to go swimming. We all protested, but he ignored us ripping his fire nation shirt off and jumping in the water near us. We were in one of the many craters of the rocky island we'd reached, and there was water flowing in the crater. The crater's walls rose up around us almost making a sort of bowl. As Aang swam, the rest of us sat by the water doing other things.

Sokka looked over some maps, Katara redid her hair, Toph lied back shutting her eyes, Momo and Appa were chattering and groaning at each other, Kale was sharpening his sword, and I was staring at them all in disbelief.

We were bound to get caught like this.

"Are you sure Aang should be swimming? He could be seen!"

Katara rolled her eyes. "By who… Last I checked there aren't people for miles."

Aang resurfaced from where he'd dived under the water, spitting some out of his mouth and grinning like a little kid who was having a blast. The only thing that made me anxious about it all was that he was swimming with his tattoos in the wide open.

"Princess has a point…" Toph began, then sat up and looked in Aang's direction. "Aang, I know swimming is fun and all, but do you really think you should be exposing yourself like that. Cover up!"

Aang floated on his back nonchalantly, saying, "What? I'm wearing trunks.

Now I added in, "We know...it's your tattoos we're worried about. What if someone sees you?"

Katara waved both Toph and I off. "There are walls all around us. It's completely safe."

Kale stood now and sheathed his sword. Walking over to me, he said, "It will be fine. You don't have to worry all the time."

"Sure I do… Danger always seems to find us!"

Kale smirked. "Props of being with the avatar I guess."

Aang suddenly hollered, and we immediately turned our attention to him only to find he was nowhere to be seen. "Aang!" we all shouted at the same time, and then we were racing out of the crater and trying to slide down to Aang. When we got down the crater and managed to reach the stream that Aang was now in, we saw he had originally disappeared through a sort of water way tunnel.

"Let's do it again!" he exclaimed. It was then I noticed Momo was on his head, the little guy shaking and wet.

When he had hopped on Aang's head?

**Third Person POV**

The four teenagers were seated on the crowded beach, watching as fire nation citizens ran by laughing and giggling like the war wasn't even happening. The water in front of them was indeed beautiful, and the sun above them felt nice on their skin.

Ty Lee was sprawled out on a blanket, wearing a white two piece bathing suit. Her hair was in a long braid like she always had it, and she was using a fire nation boy's shadow for shade.

Azula sat on her own blanket, her eyes squinted as the sun shined brightly on her. She too was wearing a two piece, only hers was red. She glowered at Ty Lee with jealousy, wishing a guy would come over so she too could use one for shade.

Mai and Zuko were huddled under an umbrella, both of them in their own beach attire and looking bored. Zuko was wearing red pants that didn't pass his knees, and he also wore a sort of robe so his upper body wasn't exposed. Mai sat beside him wearing a red two piece where the top had nothing holding it up.

Zuko let out a heavy sigh, unable to believe they were actually at this place. He wanted to go back to the palace. He wanted to mope over Amber's death. He wanted to just be alone.

"I hate the beach," Mai muttered, making Zuko jump at the sudden break of silence between the two of them.

After a moment, he nodded. "Yeah… me too."

Mai shot Zuko a glance, and she immediately saw the pained look on his face. She knew how much he was hurting on the inside. She knew how much he was blaming himself. She knew how much she herself was enraged with Azula.

Mai blamed Azula more than anyone for her friend's death. Azula shot the lightning… Azula didn't show any sign of grieving for Amber's death. Mai wanted to slice Azula with her knives so terribly.

"Amber!" a voice suddenly shouted.

Zuko's eyes widened and he looked across the beach at a seven year old girl who was playing by the water. Another girl of similar age was with her.

"No! It's Ember! Mommy said Ember Island!" the other girl corrected her friend.

"Amber!"

Zuko winced.

"Ember!"

"Amber!"

Zuko winced again.

"Ember!"

"Am-"

"It's Ember Island! Go look it up!" the girl shouted, ending the little quarrel.

Zuko was frowning deeply now, his head spinning once again with thoughts of Amber. Mai noticed, taking his hand in hers to comfort him. While she did this, Azula walked up to them saying, "Hey, beach bums, we're playing next. Ty Lee, get over here now!" She gestured over to the beach volleyball game occurring.

Zuko and Mai both groaned.

**Amber POV**

So here we were, the time was a little after noon, and we were flying once more through the sky on Appa. That's all we ever seemed to do.

"Hey… When we take down my father once and for all, do you think we can stay on the ground for more than a week?" I asked.

Toph raised her hand. "I second that!"

Katara sighed, sitting across from me and staring out across the clouds we were above. "It would be nice to get to relax. I have a feeling it won't be easy though after the war. This world's going to have a lot of repairing to do."

Now I frowned, a thought suddenly coming to me. What would become of Zuko and Azula when we defeated father?

"Um… Just wondering… What will happen to Zuko and Azula?" I asked.

The group suddenly looked at me with surprise at my question, and I saw Katara frown when she saw the pain on my face.

"They can't be trusted, Amber! We're going to have to lock them up probably," Sokka said before Katara could speak. "Serves them both right anyway, all the pain they've put us through."

"Sokka!" Katara snapped.

"Well it's true! Might as well tell her now!"

Kale hugged me close to him. I pulled my knees close my chest. "Maybe we could-"

"What? Give them a choice?! Azula tried to kill you, and Zuko let her! Why do you care about what happens to them after everything they've done to you?!"

"Sokka, stop!" Katara snapped.

"I care because even though they put me through crap their still my family!" I cried.

Sokka gestured to everyone, his eyes kind of annoyed. "We're your family! Family doesn't shoot each other with lightning!"

"But…" I began. "Zuko… he's just…"

"What? Misunderstood? He's just like his father! All he cares about is power!"

Hanging my head, I said, "You're wrong, Sokka. He's just confused. He doesn't understand what he wants. I saw him… He regrets it all."

Sokka went to say something else, but he stopped. He could see the pain on my face.

An awkward silence fell between us, and I could tell Sokka was looking for the words to say. Taking in a hard sigh, he finally said, "Look… We'll cross that road when it comes… Let's just focus more on winning right now."

Numbly, I nodded letting him know I agreed.

**Third Person POV**

"I already told you. I'm not going!" Zuko snapped, stomping across the beach house they were staying in. The beach house was too old and feminine for Zuko's taste, and he didn't like the fact of being under the watch of two women who were probably in their hundreds. Lo and Li had horrible taste in décor, and they were also terrible company.

Zuko found it kind of annoying that they were stuck on the teenage group like babysitters.

Ty Lee grabbed Zuko's arm bouncing up and down with excitement. "Come on! It will be fun Zuko! A real teenage party! We never get to have fun with kids our own age!"

Zuko shook his head again. "No. I'm not going to sit at a party with a bunch of high class rich snobs."

Azula, who stood across the room with Mai, rolled her eyes. "We are high class rich snobs Zuko. We'll fit right in."

Zuko scowled. "Like I said," he turned so he was fully facing Azula. "I'm. Not. Going."

Azula narrowed her eyes. "How's about this… If you don't come with us, I'll tell dad about your night time visits to uncle."

Now Zuko tightened his fists in rage. "You're blackmailing me for a stupid party?"

She leaned forward. "Is it working?"

Zuko crossed his arms annoyed. Then he sighed in defeat. "Fine. I'll go for a few minutes."

"YAY!" Ty Lee cried, bouncing up and down some more with glee.

As her and Azula started to head out the door to head to the party they were all invited to earlier that day, Mai walked over to Zuko with a frown.

"You don't have to do this…" She said. "I'm sure Azula wouldn't really rat you out to your father about something like that."

Zuko frowned, hanging his head. "No… I should go. Maybe it will get my mind off of some things."

"You mean get your mind off of Amber?" Mai asked.

Zuko sighed again, turned and started to head toward the beach house door.

**Amber POV**

"Here you guys go," I exclaimed, passing everyone the small cups of tea I just filled up. We were seated beside a stream, Appa and Momo already fast asleep from their long day. The campfire we all sat around burned with beautiful colors of purple, blue, green, gold, red, and orange. My family stared at the beautiful fire in front of them with awe and bewilderment.

Handing Sokka one of the cups, he stared down at the darkened steaming water with uncertainty. "Are you sure I won't die from this?"

Rolling my eyes, I handed a cup to Kale who looked both grateful but also unsure. "Come on, I'm sure my tea won't be that bad. I've been learning from Kale."

Aang stared down at his cup with fear, and I saw Toph sniff her own with uncertainty. Katara was the first to place her own cup to her mouth. Sipping her tea, her eyes went wide and I felt my head hang in shame. She hated it… I failed.

"Amber! This tea tastes delicious!" Katara exclaimed.

Kale had taken a sip right after her, and he smiled toward where I had sat down between Aang and him. "You definitely have a gift."

Now I blushed, grabbing my own cup which Katara had kindly cooled for me with some ice. "I'm glad you guys like it."

Sokka and the others had drunk it now, and their own eyes opened in surprise. Sokka looked at me with a smirk. "Hey… I see you and Kale's future now. You two will get married, move to the earth kingdom, and set up your very own tea shop which will become the talk of the town!"

Kale laughed. "And then we'll hire you for mop duty."

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Nah… After the war I'm going to become the greatest warrior you've ever seen!"

"You already are, Sokka," I said, sipping my tea and sighing with relief when it did taste really good.

Toph lied back now and stared up at the stars above. "When the wars over, I think I might actually make an earth bending school."

We were surprised by what Toph said.

Aang responded, "You'd be a great teacher Toph."

That night as everyone drifted to sleep around the fire, I stayed awake and stared up at the sky with a frown. What about Zuko… What would happen to him after the war?

**Third Person POV**

Zuko scowled, stomping down the sandy path of the beach and trying to get as far from the party as he could. The party had been nothing but a bunch of stupid teenagers gossiping or flirting with other stupid teenagers. Over all the party was a huge waste of time, and it didn't get Zuko's mind off of Amber one bit.

Zuko stared out across the ocean to the setting sun in the distance. He wondered if Amber could see the beautiful sunset from wherever she was.

Sighing heavily, Zuko continued to walk along the beach. As he went, he scanned the sand for seashells and other things that would draw his mind from the thoughts that kept creeping in.

By the time he reached his family's old stone beach house, he'd collected a conch shell, a few pretty pearls from some clams, and a purple shell that reminded him of Amber.

The sun was barely visible in the sky when he reached the porch of the beach house he hadn't been to since his mother died. Tears fell down his cheeks as he walked across the porch and stepped into the doorway of the house. It was dark inside, almost eerie. Zuko was actually scared to go inside and be reminded of the past.

He stepped in though.

The foyer was still the way it always had been, a picture of the whole family on the wall. Zuko didn't dare glance at the small black haired gold eyed girl, afraid he'd break down into hard sobs.

He was tired of crying.

Walking through the dark beach home that looked to have cobwebs and dust from years of no use, Zuko thought back to when he was younger.

"_Zuko!" Amber had exclaimed, her five year old form running across the sunlit sitting room. "Let's go make a sandcastle!"_

Zuko cringed, quickly trying to push the memory away. No… He would not think about her. It would only bring him more pain.

He hung his head heavily as he stood in the dark empty beach house alone.

**Amber POV**

Turning over on my side, I yanked my sleeping bag farther over my head trying so hard to fall asleep. Everyone else was passed out around me, but I just couldn't drift. It wasn't that I wasn't tired, because I definitely was. It was just that nothing I did seemed to let me drift into a peaceful oblivion.

We had all lied down and fallen asleep by the stream we'd found earlier. There were still craters around us hiding us from others, but even if we were safe from detection I had an unsettling feeling in my stomach. A feeling like someone was watching us.

Slowly and silently, I pushed my sleeping bag off of me and got to my feet. Walking a little ways from the others across the dark rocky surface we were on, I scanned the moonlit area for any sign of life. There was nothing.

Glancing back at the group I saw they were all fast asleep. They would freak if they woke up and saw me missing, so I decided to just be a few minutes. There was something out there though, and I was curious to find out what it was.

The crater we were in was deep, so the only way up it was to climb the rocky wall that stretched a good forty feet up. No one woke up and noticed as I began to climb up the large craters side so I could reach the top. After climbing for a good five minutes, I finally managed to grab onto the rocks at the top of the craters wall, and by this point I was out of breath. Rolling on the flat surface of the rocky earth, I wondered why we'd chosen such a deep crater to rest in.

After catching my breath, I stood and looked down below. By the light of the moon I saw the group still asleep by the body of water. Then my eyes shot to where the source of the fire happened to be.

My spirit felt something close. This something was not good though. There was something dark about it. The fire I felt from this evil source felt so near, that it made my body shiver a bit. There was something bad coming. I had a terrible feeling about it.

Tightening my fist, I silently inched my way toward the source of heat I could feel in the distance. This source of heat I immediately knew belonged to a human, but I didn't see him or her anywhere. It kind of made me nervous not knowing where the person was who was most definitely nearby.

My eyes scanned the rocky cliff I now stood on, and I tightened my fist prepared to fight. The fire inched closer, but I couldn't really place a location on where it was.

"_Caw!"_ Something suddenly cried, and I gasped as a bird flew out of nowhere and smacked right into my face. The bird sent me stumbling back and I screamed as it dug its talons in my face. Lighting a flame in my hand, I shoved my fist forward and the terrible giant bird let out a shriek and ran from my colorful fire. When the bird was off, I clutched my face where I felt warm blood trickle down my cheek.

What was with that bird?

A harsh fire suddenly erupted behind me, and I turned with a gasp to see a man who had to be almost eleven feet. His shadow loomed over me in the dark, and I backed away immediately in horror. As I backed away, I saw a metal boot on his right foot which took me off guard. Why did he have a metal boot?

The man suddenly thrust his hand forward, and I gasped when his large hand grabbed my neck and lifted me off the ground. Immediately I began to choke, my hands holding onto his for dear life as I tried to pull his hand off of me. I choked and kicked at him, struggling to escape. His grip tightened around my throat, closing my airways.

The man held me right in front of his face, his dark eyes sending even more shivers down my spine. He almost smiled when he saw the fear cross over my face. Trying to calm down, I narrowed my eyes and tightened my grip on his hand. Lighting a flame in my hand, the man howled when I burned him and dropped me to the ground.

Landing hard on my butt, I scrambled as fast as I could to scoot as far from this man as I could. He looked like he wanted to kill me.

"Stay back!" I ordered.

He sneered. "You're not my target."

"Then who is?"

He didn't answer. Instead he turned and started to head toward the edge of the cliff, and I panicked knowing immediately who his target was. He knew Aang was alive? He was going after the Avatar! Immediately, I jumped back to my feet and outstretched my hand. A huge wall of fire suddenly shot up in front of the man and he stopped in his step staring at the wall annoyed. His fists tightened and I could only imagine a scowl coming on his face. The many different colors of the fire danced across his cold face.

He suddenly took in a hard breath, and I felt the fire inside him suddenly grow and flow to his head.

To his head?

He turned suddenly, and I gasped when a harsh blast of fire shot from his forehead where I now could see a tattoo of a vertical eye. Immediately I screamed and held my hand forward stopping the blast by controlling his fire. The fire stopped about two feet from me, almost like I'd created an invisible wall that the fire couldn't pass through.

My wall of fire still raged behind the man who now looked at me with fury. His fire had cut off, and became weak again. He tightened his fist and took in another deep breath to try and fire at me again. With a quick thrust of my hand, I dimmed the fire inside him, stopping him from being able to use his strange mind bending. His eyes widened when I stopped the fire inside him, and then he looked like he was ready to kill me for certain this time.

Swinging his fist forward, he tried to punch me but I was quick. Ducking, I rushed around him and shot fire at his back sending him flying forward and hitting the rocky earth hard. While he was down, I rushed to the edge of the rocky extinguishing my wall of fire and shouted down at the teens at the bottom of the crater, "Guys! Wake up! We have to get out of here!"

My voice echoed across the air, and everyone was immediately awake and alert. As they all stared up at me with surprise and question, I turned back to the man who was back on his feet and heading toward me again. This time when he breathed I wasn't ready for his blast.

As fire shot from his head again, I thrust my hand forward to block it but the force of the blow sent me flying back. My body flew over the cliffs edge, and I screamed as I fell through the air toward the bottom of the crater. Wind only rushed past my ears for a brief second though, because suddenly I felt arms wrap around my waist and I was suddenly flying instead.

Aang used his air bending to lighten both of our falls, and when we did reach the ground again Aang's air helped us land lightly on our feet.

"You okay?" Aang asked, steadying me as my body shook a bit from my fall.

Collecting myself, I scowled and shot my eyes up at the cliffs edge where the man stood staring down at us. "No… I think this guy wants to kill you Aang."

Aang's eyes widened and he immediately stared at the man as well. When he did this, I shouted, "Look out!" Grabbing Aang, I shoved him out of the way as I held a hand out toward the air. As the man shot fire from his head once more at us, I tried to shoot my hand up again to stop the fire once more.

Something hard smacked into my face again, and I cried out as sharp claws sliced my cheek again. Shoving the bird off, I stumbled back in pain. That stupid bird had come back, and it drew my attention from the attack. The fire hit me hard, and I felt the blazing hot blast send me flying back. As soon as I hit the ground, I smashed my head into the rocky earth. My vision blurred and I couldn't really see what was happening. Even my hearing was a bit out of focus.

As I started to collect myself, I heard Sokka shout from somewhere, "Everyone on Appa!" An explosion sounded a second later, and I could just see through my returning vision that Aang and the man were having a full blown fight. Aang was throwing every element he could at the man.

Hands suddenly grabbed under my arms and I was hoisted up. "Come on, Amber." Kale practically dragged me over to where the others were climbing onto Appa. Aang continued to fight the giant man in the background, and I searched through my blurred sight for him. Was he okay? Did he get hit when I got hit?

"Amber! Come on!" Sokka said, and I felt another set of hands grab one of my arms. Everything was happening so fast.

When we were on Appa, Sokka took the reins and got the giant furry guy to set off in the air. As we flew, I began to see more clearl. Trying to ignore my pounding head, I darted my eyes to the top of the crater now, where I saw Aang was still fighting the man with all the strength he could. Appa swooped down right in the nick of time, because the man's hard fire blast suddenly sent Aang flying back and falling through the air. Appa caught Aang in his saddle, the air bender landing right beside me, and then we were shooting through the air away from the crazy man who was trying to kill us.

As everyone caught their breaths, and calmed their pounding hearts, realizing the threat was gone, I clutched my head and felt a warm liquid I assumed was blood. Ignoring it though, I looked over at everyone glad they were okay.

Toph seemed at a loss for words, Sokka seemed surprised, Katara looked horrified, Kale looked confused, Sokka looked annoyed, and Aang looked relieved. Immediately Katara asked Aang if he was okay and he said he was. Mom even jumped on his back glad to see Aang was okay.

"Well, that was random," Toph said.

Shaking my head, I said, "No… He knows who Aang is. This definitely was not random. When I was with him at the top of the crater, he told me I wasn't his target."

Katara asked, "What were you doing at the top of the crater anyway, Amber?"

Immediately I hung my head a bit, saying, "I thought I felt a source of fire nearby, so I was curious and went to check it out."

Aang looked bewildered. "You felt a source of fire?"

My face burned and my head was still pounding. "I'm the spirit of fire now… I guess sensing fire benders nearby comes with the package."

Sokka turned his head to glance at me for a brief moment. Then he looked away guiding Appa in the direction we needed to go.

What was that look for?

Someone suddenly punched my arm and I winced from the force. "Hey, Princess! Didn't I tell you to stop being stupid and trying to get yourself killed."

Rubbing my pounding arm, I shot Toph a frown. "I wasn't trying to be stupid. I had no clue what that source of fire belonged to. I was just too curious for my own good I guess."

"Well hows about a new rule… From now on we avoid being curious so none of us get killed!"

Aang was still a bit shaken from the attack, but he managed to raise his hand saying, "I second that!"

"We do owe Amber though. If she hadn't warned us who knows what would've really happened," Katara said, trying to thank me instead of scold me. I was a bit surprised she wasn't shouting at me with her motherly ways right now.

Kale's hand suddenly rested on my cheek, and I winced as his finger traced over the scratches on my face that had thankfully stopped bleeding. "You okay? That hawk got you good."

Nodding, I smiled weakly. "Yeah… I'm fine. When I run into that metal forehead shooting man again though, I swear I'm going to strangle that stupid pet of his."

He laughed, saying, "We can have it for dinner."

**Third Person POV**

Zuko threw another painting into the fire, the flames shooting up toward the sky above with fury. He stormed past Ty Lee, Mai, and Azula who watched him from where they sat on logs by the fire. Grabbing another painting of him and his dad, he practically smashed it into the flaming pile in front of him. When he was done, he plopped down on the log where Mai sat, crossing his arms annoyed with everything.

The whole group stared over at him with surprise, uncertainty, and silence.

After a moment Azula said, "Now that you've had your little tantrum, can we try to enjoy the rest of the night?"

Zuko scowled, his eyes glaring daggers at Azula. "You just don't care do you," he hissed.

Azula looked confused by his words, and a bit unsure of what to say. Zuko was now on his feet again and stomped over to her. Now he was ready to tell them all how he felt.

"You don't care about anyone but yourself! Ever since Amber died, you haven't shown any remorse or guilt at all. Whenever I even mention Amber you roll your eyes at me and tell me to get over it! Do you even care that you killed our sister?"

Azula was surprised by Zuko's words, and a bit speechless.

"For so long, I thought that if my dad accepted me, I'd be happy. I'm back home, now my dad talks to me. Huh, he even thinks I'm a hero. Everything should be perfect, right? I should be happy now, but I'm not. I'm angrier than ever! And you want to know why? It's because you and father don't give a crap that Amber is dead! Am I really the only one in this family who cares?"

Azula now scowled. "You're stupid Zuko to think anyone would care about Amber! That girl was a traitor from the start, and in the end she would've gotten what was coming for her. Father isn't sad about any of this because he truly wanted Amber dead from the start! You're going to have to get it through your thick skull, that the only person who cares is you!"

Now Zuko backed up, his eyes wide at what his sister had just said.

"_Father isn't sad about any of this because he truly wanted Amber dead from the start."_

His mind trailed back to what Amber had told him so long ago.

"_Our father ordered Zhao to kidnap me… He tried to kill me…"_

Zuko winced as Amber's words suddenly came true in his mind. He turned away from his sister, shutting his eyes tightly as tears threatened to spill. He remembered something else Amber had said.

"_He's hated me from the day I was born… You need to open your eyes one day and see that dad doesn't care squat about any of us! If he did he would've let you come home years ago, avatar or not!"_

Zuko clutched his head in agony, tears sliding down his cheeks as he said softly with a broken whisper, "My eyes are open, Amber. I'm sorry…"

He believed her now. He believed Amber. If only it wasn't too late...

* * *

**A/N: So that's the chapter. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**


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